


Of Dolphins and Bunny Rabbits

by DiscoTrain



Category: Bishoujo Senshi Sailor Moon | Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon, Bishoujo Senshi Sailor Moon | Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon (Anime & Manga), ジョジョの奇妙な冒険 | JoJo no Kimyou na Bouken | JoJo's Bizarre Adventure
Genre: Aged-Up Characters, Angst, Awkward Flirting, Cuteness overload, Divorce, Drama, F/F, F/M, Family, Fluff, Healing, Heartbreak, Hurt/Comfort, Romance, Slice of Life, self-contained chapters, smut in later chapters, snapshot of life
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-12-16
Updated: 2020-07-12
Packaged: 2021-02-26 00:02:31
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 30,711
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21814129
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DiscoTrain/pseuds/DiscoTrain
Summary: Perhaps it was fate that star-crossed lovers would one day meet: a star that fell from heaven into the sea, and the moon princess who watches over him. This is the life of Usagi Tsukino, the mysterious Sailor Moon, and of Jotaro Kujo, a marine biologist and a pillar of strength, from their beginning in college a few years after the end of Stardust Crusaders to an alternate post-Stone Ocean ending. At times, strife broke their hearts, and during other times, their sense and desire for their family brought them together once more.
Relationships: Hermes Costello/Kujo Jolyne, Implied Nijimura Okuyasu/Higashikata Josuke (JoJo: Diamond is Unbreakable), Tsukino Usagi/Kujo Jotaro, implied Hirose Koichi/Yamagishi Yukako
Comments: 4
Kudos: 9





	1. The Doves Return

**Author's Note:**

> Hello! This is my first work I'm submitting to this site. This was inspired by a series of asks I've answered plus some exchanges I've had with a friend on tumblr. In fact, ever since I started watching Part 3 of JoJo's Bizarre Adventure (Stardust Crusaders), my friend had mentioned that one of their rarepair ships is Usagi Tsukino from the Sailor Moon series and Jotaro Kujo from JoJo. I nearly instantly fell in love with the idea, and a few months later of talking back and forth, I've finally arrived at a collection of imagines and scenarios sufficient enough to kickstart in earnest a true fanfiction featuring this ship. (To be honest, one of my favorite aspects of this ship is their height difference--compare 6'5" to 4'11" and tell me I'm wrong.) So to my friend, this is for you!
> 
> Oh, but this fanfiction won't just feature one ship. There are others between the characters of JoJo and Sailor Moon that I'll pepper in throughout the chapters. As for rating, I do plan on some chapters having sexual content and smut, as well as some detailing scenarios and character deaths and the like, and when that happens, I'll put disclaimers into the notes at the beginning of the chapter and update the fic tags accordingly.
> 
> One thing to note: I understand that in the Sailor Moon series, Usagi Tsukino is 14 years old. In this fanfiction, she's obviously aged up to an adult. The exact ages of each character will vary as each chapter will focus on a brief snapshot in the lives of Usagi Tsukino and Jotaro Kujo non-chronologically, meaning that in chapter one, they are in their mid-forties or so, while in another chapter, they could be in their twenties and still dating, and so on. To keep this distinction clear, the approximate ages of the characters within each chapter will be explicitly stated in the beginning notes section.
> 
> For chapter 1, the ages are:  
> Usagi and Jotaro--mid forties  
> Jolyne and Hermes--young twenties  
> Chibiusa--late teens
> 
> Chapter 1: The Doves Return takes place in an alternate post-Stone Ocean narrative where the characters do survive and the time reset was either thwarted or reverted such that the effects were nullified.

Rarely, Jolyne and Chibiusa witnesses a few moments when their recently rejoined parents flirt openly with each other. The thought of their father being so openly affectionate absolutely never crossed their minds, and although it happens very infrequently, they noticed that it occurred more frequently now than over a decade ago before they had divorced. Although it pleased them to see their parents reconnecting and settling down with each other after years of being separated and never even hearing from their father, it left a strange and downright painful wave of jolts with every exchange.

Jolyne and Chibiusa took turns painting each other’s nails on the kitchen table covered with a few pages of paper towels, but Chibiusa nearly always fumbled with the polish. She could never quite contain the polish upon her fingernails—one spontaneous twitch of her thumb or wrist with every stroke of polish would smear some of it onto the skin of her finger. Jolyne watched her make one mess after another and another before intervening, “Let me do it,” and snatched the little bottle from her sister’s hands. Chibiusa had started to whine partly out of habit, but Jolyne’s grip was firm enough to smother her whimper before it could fire up and aggravate her nerves further, and with resigned frustration, she demonstrated her skillful and swift control of the polish brush.

Around this time, Usagi and Jotaro relaxed with each other in the living room connected to the kitchen with Usagi sitting across Jotaro’s lap and whispering sweet words into his ears as if they were the only two on the entire floor. The girls, however, heard her whispering and short bouts of giggling and laughter from both of their parents, but they failed to hear most of their mother’s soft-spoken words. Despite this, the flirtatious energy radiating from both of them still pricked the skin of the girls casually and blissfully unaware of their parents’ words until their voices inevitably grew louder from their confidence in that they were alone. The thought of their parents flirting and courting each other like young lovers never quite crossed the girls’ minds, so it unsettled them to think of their parents as anything other than mid-forty-year olds who should be planning for retirement. It especially troubled them to think of dating anytime past thirty years of age, especially for their parents who had gone through a heartbreaking separation over a decade ago.

As Jolyne sat there, mostly pretending to concentrate on cleaning and correcting the beauty of her sister’s nails, she couldn’t help to permit herself to flashback into that age of separation when her mother, distraught no doubt by a broken heart, accompanying loneliness, and an ever-rampant determination and desperation to provide for her daughters, sought out the affection of other men to fill that hole Jotaro had decisively left behind. Yet, it proved to be a fleeting effort that yielded very little progress or results besides a clearer understanding of the importance of motherhood for Usagi. Despite the well-wishes and best efforts from her closest friends over the years who wanted nothing but to mend her broken heart and help her move past her then ex-husband, Usagi chose to remain dedicated to her daughters, to care for them, to be patient for them, and consequently lost interest in pursuing another partner in her life. Her mother’s conclusion from her attempt to reenter the dating scene had left conflicted feelings within Jolyne. She only wanted Usagi to be happy in the end, but remained stubbornly reluctant to admit that she needed a partner in her life. Perhaps the bitterness of her father’s negligence and absence over the years and finally his departure that left her opposed to Usagi dating again in fear that she would be mistreated once more. In the midst of her thoughts, she couldn’t help but recall this one moment when she was a kid, maybe 13 or 14 years old, when Usagi brought her new boyfriend at the time home for supper and to introduce him to her daughters. Jolyne remembered glaring at the man whenever she had to look at him, crossing her arms sometimes at the table, and hardly even spoke to him. She even felt certain that he could feel her eyes burning holes into him. Chibiusa behaved somewhat similar, although more childishly and cold as a younger child because she would accept only Jotaro as her father and rejected all of her mother’s suitors over the years. Thus, Usagi relinquished finding a new lover and prioritized her daughters over her love life.

Yet, the madness that had swirled around their lives fizzled out like a soft breeze when Jotaro and Usagi rediscovered their spark for one another and fostered a better relationship that admittedly helped them build a happier life together. She most certainly wouldn’t admit it now, but the happiness radiating from her parents now that they rediscovered their flame for each other warmed Jolyne’s heart to see and feel as it resembled her early childhood, before they divorced, when they had Chibiusa, and even before becoming an older sister. Even she could tell that they behaved more openly affectionately with each other again and happier each day—she could even see that in the way her mother’s eyes light up every day when her father returns home, or how her mother smiled more and some color returned to her face. Still, Jolyne found it difficult to forgive him for everything he failed to do for her and her family—she knew it would take more time for the wounds to heal completely. “Ew, Mom and Dad are dating again,” She lightly sneered behind their parents’ backs, feigning disgust which her sister mirrored with a goofy enthusiasm when she wrinkled her nose.

Chibiusa, on the other hand, quickly realized how her disrespectful actions had damaged her mother through several heart-to-heart talks she had with her father within the privacy of his study. Usagi knew that she would only talk to him and take his words seriously as her shrill demands for her ‘real father’ echoed and tormented her mind through the years. When he returned, Usagi praised whatever god or angel who heard and granted her prayers and understood this as a sign, an opportunity, to reconnect with her younger child. She knew that Jotaro was the means she needed to patch her relationship with Chibiusa, and so, she took the opportunity and explained her plan to Jotaro. _“You’re the only one that she’ll listen to,”_ She pleaded to him during one night as the girls slept, _“She never listens to me—when you were gone, she would cry and scream that I was somehow keeping you away from her deliberately. She acts out; she talks back to me; she throws tantrums; she dresses like a wicked lady, and I’m afraid if she’s getting into trouble at school or elsewhere. Could you, maybe…talk to her? She keeps demanding to speak to you, and I think you could set her straight. Please talk some sense into her. Could you do that?”_ She slowly looked up to his face, taking her time to compose herself enough to hold back her tears, but she still knew that he would surely see them about to fall in how her blue eyes appear glassy every time before she cried. She thought it was silly of her, a middle-aged woman now, to cry so easily, but those memories of her younger child screaming at her, blaming her for everything awful that happened to this family, and brushing her aside suddenly washed over her ears, and she could do nothing else but suddenly submit to her desperation to heal these decade-old wounds.

He nodded with a slight head movement. _“I’ll talk with her.”_ Relieving a sigh so great she had suddenly felt exhaustion over letting go of her worries, she hugged him, muttering words of gratefulness with the anxiety over the outcome. Would it work? Would Jotaro help to reform Chibiusa’s behavior? She waited anxiously and painfully for days, resisting the urge to press her ear against the glass panels of his study’s door in the hopes of eavesdropping on their conversation. She trusted him, but she couldn’t ignore the nagging fear and understanding that her relationship with her own child was on the line. So, she usually indulged in tending to the household chores to steer her mind away from it with occasionally speaking briefly with Chibiusa to test the waters. And she saw progress. If Chibiusa wasn’t silent for the first few moments, she spoke to her mother with brief sentences and checked herself for attitude within her words. She almost sounded like a little kid speaking with her mom after knowing she did something awful and spoke hesitantly to apologize. Although she didn’t apologize outright, Usagi clearly saw that Chibiusa attempted to make a better effort to speak to her respectfully. It was a victory, even if it was a small one.

Admittedly, Chibiusa still felt a pang of jealousy over her mother having a conversation and spending time with her father, occupying his attention. She was such a Daddy’s girl still, even as a teenager. “I was feeling a little off today, but you’ve turned me on again.” Oh god. A notorious and embarrassing one-liner from their father had been spoken, sparking new waves of cringe across the girls’ moods. They heard a few of the lighter stories of their father’s trip to Egypt when he was a teenager and all the corny one-liners they had the blessing to miss him saying because _“he thought they were cool in the moment”_ from their great-grandfather Joseph, but hearing those lines in person brought an unpleasant chill wafting over them. He had only spoken a single line, and the girls silently begged for mercy. “I’m no photographer, but I can picture you and me together.” Another one. They wondered how on earth their mother hasn’t walked away laughing yet, but she whole-heartedly enjoyed them anyway, giggling and bantering back and forth with Jotaro, lightly teasing him over those quirky lines. Oh but he wasn’t finished. Not by a long shot. “Are you Copper and Tellurium? Because you’re CuTe.” His lines had evolved and became more scientific, as the girls had dreaded. _Who would even understand that anyway_ , the girls, who hadn’t an interest in their science classes, thought. It became abundantly clear that they needed to stop him from continuously dishing out these embarrassingly horrible lines or it might just be the death of them from second-hand embarrassment. Yet, they weren’t sure which sounded worse: his one-liners or Usagi’s flirtatious teasing.

“They’re so weird.” Chibiusa had whispered to her big sister while trying to ignore all the one-liners Jotaro tried earnestly to pass off as pickup lines. When she noticed that Jolyne invested more attention into her nails and gently blew on them to dry, she pricked with impatience. “Hey, hurry up and keep painting mine! Yours are probably dried by now.” She offered her hands in expectation, and Jolyne huffed, clearly irritated, but she resumed steadily reapplying the nail polish to each one of her little sister’s nails.

“Chibiusa, keep your hands still or the polish will get everywhere again.” Chibiusa hummed her annoyance towards the older girl but slowed her fidgeting slightly, just enough to avoid landing on Jolyne’s last nerve. Fighting between the sisters became a fairly common occurrence before their parents reconnected, and consequently, Chibiusa silently fretted over her brief recollection of her sister’s scary temper. Yet, driven by love for her father, she remained willing to apply herself and rebuild the bridge between herself and her sister to foster peace within their home.

“If you were a chicken, you’d be impeccable.” He had moved into the world of puns; it couldn’t get much worse than this--the girls wordlessly shared this thought and braced themselves for more of this corny mess from their father. How could their mother stand this? Still, she welcomed every line with laughter and playful pleading that he should stop, but they all know that she didn’t mean it. After all, she held a notorious reputation of precariously wielding awful one-liners herself, but she consistently demonstrated a more…natural delivery? Expected? It was a stubborn fact that she embraced displaying her emotions outright, affection, sadness and all, and proven to be a hard contrast to Jotaro, so the girls had expected her to act silly from time to time. It still seemed…out of place for their stoic father who remained unflappable and stone-faced over the years in their memory.

“Do you remember how you first asked me out?” Jolyne and Chibiusa nearly visibly jolted at hearing those words softly spoken from their mother’s lips. Jolyne rolled her eyes at the thought of hearing how their parents started dating about two decades ago, and Chibiusa grimaced, shaking her head and embracing for the next impact. They knew the next line delivered would be a heavy one to handle, and the cringe would be awful to contend with. “You called me on the phone,” One of Usagi’s hands played with the inner hem of Jotaro’s jacket, stroking some of the fabric with her pad of her thumb, before moving to his chest and abdomen, slowly rubbing up and down his firm torso through the fabric, “And said, _‘can I…can I see you…again?’_ You sounded so scared,” Chills of second-hand embarrassment crept up the spines of the girls, and they desperately attempt to pour the rest of their focus into the nails, but the absurdity of their parents made it futile. “But you were still so sweet when you showed up the next day with flowers, took me by the hand, and walked me to and from my dorm room.” Jolyne rolled her eyes at the image, prompting Chibiusa to laugh because the teasing made it sound so ridiculous. A large, intimidating man such as their father, wooing their dainty mother with flowers and escorting her to and from the car as if he tried to act like a gentleman from a classic romance novel Jolyne had read sometime in an English class. Chibiusa had snorted and muffled her laughter with her hand at the very thought of her father being a classic gentleman. The girls felt ever more ready to pass away from the mortification and cringe on the spot.

“For the love of God, make it stop,” Jolyne whispered and struggled to keep her fingers steady while she continued to apply the nail polish. Chibiusa fought back a fit of giggles from the combination of her sister’s face and voice, and to keep her hand steady, she pinched the bridge of her nose and watched her sister work the polish on the rest of her nails.

“And when you kissed me for the first time,” At this moment they knew that they were heading for an even worse scenario. Their chests tightened slightly, and Jolyne itched to pack up her nail polish tools as quickly as she physically could and continue her sisterly bonding time with her sister far away from their parents in just a few minutes. “You made me feel so light, I had to hold onto you or else I felt that I might float away,” Usagi’s voice grew softer, more sentimental with each word, and the girls could clearly picture what must have been going on in the other room. Usagi leaned in close for a kiss, and a few seconds later, the girls heard the soft and slightly wet sounds of lips parting. Then another sound, and another.

“Your coral lips were made to kiss.” And they heard yet another kiss. Digust bubbled up within Jolyne’s throat.

“If they start making out, I’m leaving.” Jolyne whispered and carefully wiped away a stray mark of polish on Chibiusa’s index finger. “And you can finish this yourself.”

“That’s fair.” She winced when Jolyne pressed down a little too hard into a cut on the rim of her nail. Her sister could be quite forceful when stressed or irritated, but Chibiusa stubbornly endured for as long as possible because the other conversation proved to be too entertaining to ignore. She even wondered if her parents were aware of their daughters incidentally eavesdropping on their loving banter. “But you do such a good job! I like how you do my nails.” She saw Jolyne’s smile a little after hearing that but noted how small and fleeting it had been which left the impression that her sister didn’t quite believe her words. Still, she felt relief at sharing the truth with her sister whom had always looked out for her.

“Maybe later I can put some lipstick on you then take you out to shop for your own,” She directed Chibiusa to gently—and emphasized the word ‘gently’—blow on her fingers to dry the first coat then quickly inspected her own nails for damage. “Just don’t go stealing my stuff.”

“I never stole your—“

“I just know it was you. I saw you wearing my favorite shade of lip gloss several times already,” Chibiusa pressed her lips together and furrowed her brows in defense, but Jolyne countered by silently looking up from her tools and glaring beams into the girl’s eyes. “You could’ve just asked me to use it instead of taking it from my drawer,”

“Like you asked the store clerk if you could buy it instead of just, oh I don’t know, taking it from the shelf and not paying for it?” Jolyne slowly raised her head from that, her mouth slightly opened and her eyes, now widened a little, staring her down from across the table, but Chibiusa remained strong in her defense. She shook her head at her sister and mouthed the word ‘yeah’ as if daring for Jolyne to respond. Yet, the older girl closed her mouth, and with her jaw clenched shut, she took a deep breath before showing a strained smile and asking for Chibiusa’s hands again for the next coat of polish.

“Stay still. I don’t want to waste much more of my nail polish.” From the next room, they heard the first wet sounds of two sets of lips pulling apart from each other. _‘Oh no,’_ Jolyne instinctually rolled her eyes, _‘They’re starting to do it! I better hurry up.’_ She knew her parents had just kissed each other in the next room, and although she wished for nothing but her mother’s happiness, she felt miserable to be stuck in the kitchen and subjected to hearing not only their father spewing out these ridiculous lines but also on the edge of knowing that their parents were being gross again. Weren’t they in their forties and practically in old age? Then why don’t they act like it? Being lovey-dovey was more appropriate for young beauties like her, she thought and hurried along with coating Chibiusa’s nails.

In just the next room, Usagi enjoyed her seat perched upon Jotaro’s lap, her legs neatly stretched across his and her arms wrapped around his shoulders and neck. Her thin fingers wove through his strands of black hair mixed with ever-present grey he refused to comb out, despite constant teasing about it from Jolyne. _‘It makes you look old,’_ She said with a smirk, _‘Isn’t it time to take your arthritis medication, old man?’_ With a quick glare and a muttered _‘Lay off. Shouldn’t you be doing homework?’_ he shuffled away and sought out work either in his office or within the house before she could roll her eyes at him. Yet, Usagi proved to be much different. Her gentle blue eyes looked over his strands of slightly salt and pepper hair around his ears, thumbing over a few of the grey strands and pushing the loose strands off of his face. She marveled at how dark his hair mostly remained and how the grey stands seemed to start their invasion around his ears and creeping towards the back of his head. Still, she looked it over as if he had threads of platinum swaying among a sea of onyx hair. Given his hair, it made him all the more appealing, like a wise professor, aged and tested by years of research and problem-solving. In turn, the silver hairs woven within her long blonde strands reflected the soft glow of the light, enveloping her in a mystical glow of soft white and appearing as a beloved queen within his eyes. Indeed, he could see that she had lost some of her youth in the decade or so that they’ve been apart, but if anything, she was more beautiful than ever before. He took his time observing the sight of her, fondly recalling the instances when she laid atop of him after making love. With a large hand placed upon her cheek, he would brush the loose strands of hair away from her face and stroke her cheek with his thumb. If she looked away shyly, a rosy blush on her cheeks, he would gently guide her face towards his and maybe give her a kiss or two. As he looked into her eyes and all over her face, he reflected on his previous married life with her, how he took everything for granted and never realized just what he had until he had lost it all during the divorce. Now that they were together again, he treasured her even more and steeled himself to make that known, even if it meant coming out of his comfort zone every now and again.

“You still look so handsome, _professor_ ,” Usagi cooed, leaning in again for another kiss then resting back on Jotaro’s strong arm wrapped around her small waist. In the kitchen, Jolyne stuck her tongue out and faked a gag, eliciting another round of giggles from Chibiusa. She had finished applying the second and last layer of polish onto her sister’s nails, but she couldn’t move fast enough to gather up her supplies and skedaddle out of the house. She knew that Hermes waited for her at the movie theater by now for their date they had scheduled two weeks ago. With every minute that passed, the ever growing dread of Hermes pulling on her earlobe as punishment for tardiness lingering in her mind. She knew just how strong her girlfriend’s fingers could be, of course.

“Oh my god, that is literally so uncool,” She spoke softly, underneath her breath, but Chibiusa’s ears picked up nonetheless. With a playfully mocking tone and jeering eyes, the younger girl started in on her sister’s nerves and delighted when she elicited the reaction she wanted.

“Don’t you talk like that with your girlfriend? What’s her name? …Hermit?” Jolyne caved and glared her down, knowing that Chibiusa wanted to see her frustration without riling her up too much and consistently managed to get exactly that.

“It’s _Hermes_ . And hell no! We’re cooler than that.”

“Oh, right. Then what _do_ you do? If you don’t talk like lovers, then do you _act_ like lovers?” Another glare shot in her direction. Jolyne knew exactly what Chibiusa tiptoed around, and if their parents ever found out from this brat’s weaseling, she would never have the freedom to see her friends for a little while, or at the very least, she’ll have to sit down and have that awkward “talk” with her parents again. She thought it impossible to distinguish which fate could sting worse. “I don’t think Mom and Dad would approve—“

“We go out to the movie theater, like tonight.” To distract herself from the brat’s tempting sneer she burned to rip off, Jolyne whipped out her sterling silver compact mirror and inspected the carefully curated lines of her lime-green matte lipstick. She had a particular way of skillfully applying makeup that Chibiusa had aspired to emulate, but she would skip over the exotic and unusual colors her older sister developed a notorious fondness for.

“You’re going to the movies tonight? With what car? Mom’s car is still in the shop since yesterday, and there’s no way that Dad would let you drive his after your little accident with it—“

“That was barely even an accident! It was just a paint smear, and I was going five miles per hour in a parking lot. That car was fine.”

“Let’s pull an all-nighter together,” Usagi’s voice was a little quieter, but perhaps she wasn’t aware her children were still within earshot since they could still hear her easily. “…reviewing each other instead of the test material. Obviously, I would like an A, but I wouldn’t complain if you gave me your D.”

“Ever ridden a dolphin?” They could practically envision their father’s subtle smirk.

“I think it’s time to go before I get sick.” With her makeup bags gathered within her arms, Jolyne hurried off, swiftly turning her back to her parents when she entered the living room so she didn’t have to see nor hear any more of those cheesy lines. She returned to her room, dropped her things onto her desk and walked briskly to the entry hallway downstairs which was well-within the sight of her parents. In the middle of hurriedly tying her shoes, she heard her mother’s voice,

“Oh, Jolyne? I…didn’t see you there,” Usagi’s eyes nervously darted between her daughter and her husband. She hopped off of Jotaro’s lap with a jolt and straightened herself up, all while praying she didn’t sound too indecent around her child. Just how much could Jolyne have heard of her flirtatious banter? “Where are you off to?” Jolyne looked over and hid her disgust well when she spotted the mother she treasured dearly no longer perched upon the lap of her father she was struggling to forgive and understand. Although she felt the eyes of both of them on her, she smoothly commanded her eyes to focus upon Usagi.

“I’m going to see Hermes at the movies then for dinner. I have enough money, and I’ll be back before midnight. Can I have the car keys?”

"But my car is still in the shop," Jolyne's heart sank a little at hearing that and knowing that her bratty sister surely giggled at her from several rooms over. "Didn't you see that the driveway was nearly empty?"

"...No."

"Oh, well...why don't you let your father drive you there?" With a pleading smile, she faced Jotaro's stoic expression unflinchingly. He remained as unflappable as she remembered, but her charm, and maybe a few of her tears, haven’t failed her much over the years. The power of a few sweet, encouraging words, pleading eyes and smile strengthened her confidence to work around his stoic demeanor, after all.

"Mom, how would that look if I just showed up to the theater with my dad, of all people? I'm a woman now; I can drive myself." For a moment, she thought she saw a sad acknowledging smile on her mother's face, but Usagi was quick to move past it for now, for her daughter's sake. "I can't look uncool with my father there in front of Hermes. Why can't I just drive dad's car, instead? The theater isn't that far away, and I've driven his car before. And I'm coming right back from the theater, so you'll have it tonight. Come on, please? Let me use the car." Usagi exchanged silent words with Jotaro in just a glance for a few seconds; the minor accident Jolyne had about two years ago unraveled in both of their minds, and they didn't need words to share that concern between them. Usagi turned back to Jolyne, hopeful help within her eyes,

"Why don't I just drive you--"

"...It's fine." Usagi had stopped her thought abruptly and turned to Jotaro when she heard him speak and watched as he stood up and approached them. Yet, she could practically feel the cold air wafting from Jolyne and understood without looking that their child succumbed to her old habit and stared down her father. It had been a few years since Usagi and Jotaro had officially gotten back together and resumed their married life they both once lamented had ended for good, but Usagi felt that it was still too soon for the girls to relive their lives normally and heal from the absence their father left them. Although Chibiusa was showing her due respect at times, she couldn't help but feel the stinging remnants of isolation from the girl in the way that she responded to her with vague answers or when she lingered in her room, the basement, anywhere in the house where Usagi wasn't present. She had a feeling that Chibiusa deliberately avoided her, even if she was reserving her scathing words and dirty looks. With Jolyne, however, she could still see the hurt within her child's eyes at the mere mention of her father and concern over her well-being during all those years when she acted out in unconsciously desperate attempts to capture his attention. The hurt reflected in her eyes even when she met his gaze and outstretched her hand.

"I need those car keys." Despite the signs of old wounds healing, in Usagi's heart, she knew that progress blossomed between the two in the way she noticed that Jolyne’s voice excluded hostility. After all, she had promised her mother to make an earnest effort to reconnect with her father in a similar way to Jotaro having a heart-to-heart talk with Chibiusa to curb her disrespectful attitude towards her mother. To Usagi's mild surprise, she witnessed Jotaro reach into his coat pocket and pull out his car keys, casually tossing them to Jolyne who caught them without missing a beat. "Thanks, Dad."

"Be careful, and drive safely."

"I know, I know..."

"Do you have your phone--"

"I have my phone--and it's charged--I have my wallet, and I have some spare cash. I'll be fine," She resisted the urge to roll her eyes lest her father snatch those keys out of her hand and rescind his unprecedented offer. Yet, she wasn't frowning nor had an attitude present in her voice, as Usagi delightfully noticed. Instead, she was smiling a little, and when she looked upon Jotaro's face, she could have sworn to see a ghost of a smile there too. A tiny victory was still a victory. "...Thanks, Dad."

"Be safe, sweetie. I love you," Unable to contain her relief at having her fears soothed, Usagi hugged her daughter then pulled away to have a good look at her face and bring to light the painfully obvious fact that her own child was taller than her by a few glaringly obvious inches. "And don't spoil the movie for me when you get home! That's no fun!" They shared a small laugh between them, but Jolyne could still spot the concern within Usagi's eyes and in the way her smile nearly ran away from her face--her mother was never really good at hiding her emotions nor presenting them subtly at the least. "If you need anything, just call us. I don't care if we need to take a taxi over there; we'll come to get you--"

"I get it, Mom. Thanks, but I'm late already. Bye!" With her purse and jacket in-hand, Jolyne darted out the door and over to the only car in the parking lot with the grace of a butterfly elevating just out of reach of Usagi's hands.

“Hermes is a nice girl. I’m glad those two still keep in touch.” Usagi couldn’t bring herself to stand anywhere else but in front of the door, watching through the glass storm door as her eldest daughter started the car and carefully moved out of the driveway, nor would she move until the car was driven out of her sight. She may be a young woman now, Usagi found herself thinking, but Jolyne would always be her little girl. It saddened her to think that her girls were growing up too fast, and she would tear up a little if she lingered on it too much longer. Fortunately, Jotaro standing behind her and helping her to close the door once Jolyne left their sight helped to call her back. “So,” She turned to him, tracing the hem of his shirt and lightly poking at his chest. She reminded herself to keep her voice low since Chibiusa could still be sitting somewhere nearby. She couldn’t sound indecent around her children; she would die of mortification, “where were we?” She smiled up at Jotaro, a mischievous glint within her eyes, “Something about teaching me how to ride a dolphin?”


	2. Not Your Average Christmas

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A not so average Christmas for the Joestar family. Final exams and papers are due soon, pushing Jolyne to her wit's end. So, she and Hermes decide to unwind one weekend, but they let themselves go too much and face the humiliating consequences. Afterwards, Josuke, Koichi, and Okuyasu are scarred when they witness just what "little Jolyne" has been up to.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> CHAPTER WARNINGS: This chapter includes nudity, swearing, suggestive sexual themes, general horniness and extremely awkward situations.
> 
> Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays, everyone!
> 
> Character ages (I'm taking liberties with these):  
> Jolyne and Hermes: mid twenties  
> Okuyasu, Koichi, and Josuke: late twenties/early thirties  
> Jotaro and Usagi: approaching 50  
> Joseph: approaching 100 (God bless him)  
> Suzi Q: mid nineties (bless her too)  
> Shizuka: late teens  
> Kenji and Ikuko: early seventies  
> Shingo: early forties  
> Giorno: late twenties
> 
> Chapter 2: Not Your Average Christmas takes place somewhat after chapter 1 in October/November to December.

Jolyne’s feet in her heavy boots landed flat on the asphalt of the driveway when she exited her car. She leaned her weight to the side too much and fell to her side when she stepped forward with her school bag and purse in hand, but she caught herself and marched into her small one-floor, one-bedroom, one-bathroom apartment she shared with her girlfriend Hermes. The short entryway melded into the living room with a coat closet on her left when she walked into her home during the school semester. After a heart-to-heart talk with her mother, she had convinced Usagi to allow her to live away from home to attend school, but it still stung Usagi’s heart to see her drive away from home and to remain away for several months at a time. She trusted her daughter and believed that she knew how to survive, and it eased the burden on her heart that Jolyne would live with her girlfriend because it meant she wouldn’t be alone and would have someone to care for her. Still, she insisted that Jolyne call or text her the moment trouble surfaces and she would do everything in her power to aid her eldest daughter. Jolyne never broke that promise even if Usagi’s tender voice and strong hugs made her feel like a little girl again with bright eyes, a sweet face, and pure love for her mother. “ _ Mom _ ,” She sighed and returned Usagi’s hug while bravely fighting back tears. Her mother always had a way of drawing out her emotions with gentle ease, but given her age, Jolyne felt embarrassed by it. “ _ This is embarrassing. I’m not a little girl anymore. Don’t you think it’s time that I started exploring what it’s like to live in my own place? _ ”

“ _Oh, honey_ ,” Usagi could have easily cried in that moment as she watched her eldest daughter grow up before her very eyes. “ _No matter how big or old you get, you will always be my little love bug. And I will always be your mother. I just can’t help but worry about you! Now_ ,” She ended the hug to hold her daughter by the shoulders, instantly noting that even her child was taller than her by at least half a foot, and smiled, but Jolyne still saw the glassy glean of her eyes and recognized that her mother actively fought against crying. “ _Your father will help you load up your car, and please, please, please…call us sometime? I want to hear all about your first day!_ ”

Jolyne swung the door open, tossed her light open trench coat of sage onto a wooden hanger, shoved her boots into the shoe rack on the floor and promptly flopped on the nearby couch in the living room. She had planned to stay limp for a few moments, but minutes quickly flew by, and when she turned her neck to the side to catch a glimpse of the time, a half-hour had passed. She groaned—someone would have to cook dinner and she had absolutely no motivation to even leave the couch. When she heard another pair of feet shuffle around from the next door bedroom behind the couch, she perked up, forcing herself to face the bedroom door when Hermes opened it and stepped outside. “ _’Sup_ , bitch,” Hermes, in her white socks, smoothly walked upon the hardwood floor and moved towards the still open door and the scene of the suburban neighborhood glaring at them inside. “Ever hear of closing the door behind you?” With a contented grin and a little bit of mischief in her eyes, Jolyne adjusted herself to lay flat on her back on the couch cushions and stretched out as far as she could muster, carefully avoiding knocking the lamp off of the end table with her feet.

“ _Hermes_ ,” She yawned, savoring the sensation and relief of her joints popping here and there, even moaning when one felt particularly good. “Go make dinner for me…” She relished in feeling her girlfriend’s hot eyes locking on her after she released her childish whine and closed her eyes, lightly debating if she should go ahead and indulge in a nap. Screw the homework sitting in the backpack draped on the floor by her head. It would wait. A few moments went by with no answer, so she opened her eyes just in time to see Hermes glaring down at her and toss a takeout menu at her face.

“I cooked last night, so you either cook or order your own food tonight.” Hermes glared at Jolyne’s legs that blocked the rest of the couch, probably by design. The couch regretfully served as the only place to sit in the living room of the apartment, save for the barstools in the kitchen, but those felt awfully uncomfortable to perch upon, even with the red cushions tied to the wooden seats. She considered sitting on the bed of their shared bedroom, but she refused to be chased out of the living room so easily. Jolyne registered that she wanted a seat but kept her legs still, even stretched them out again, and grinned when she watched Hermes’s face grow more contorted in annoyance. “You gonna move?”

“Make me,” She smiled sweetly then stuck her tongue out, but Hermes refused to waste any more time. She snatched Jolyne’s ankles with more crushing force than Jolyne had expected and swung her legs off of the cushions, eliciting a small yelp from the other girl, then she plopped down into her seat before Jolyne could reclaim it and draw the duel of wills out even longer. After reclaiming her seat and catching herself before her rear hit the hard floor, Jolyne dove into an old habit the two enjoyed—she lifted her legs to rest across Hermes’s lap and sighed when she beheld the sight of her girlfriend’s profile. Hermes managed to avoid directly meeting her gaze; it made her too self-conscious, but even she couldn’t hide the way the curves of her mouth crept upward and the burning waves of fire dancing across her cheeks. During these times, Jolyne would simply observe every feature of her girlfriend even as she flipped through the television channels and landed on a movie they both claimed was a classic. From her narrow eyes down the sharp angle of the bridge of her nose and settling on her tempting lips and the way she occasionally bit them under the pressure of being observed, Jolyne kept every detail in her mind, her eyes shifting from one view to the next and the next in a random cycle while her body relaxed and fell even deeper into the comfort of the sofa around her. With the soft buzzing of whatever channel Hermes enjoyed filling the room, Jolyne sank even further into comfort, flexing her toes upon Hermes’s lap until she captured her attention. “How about,” She sighed once more in contentment and bit her bottom lip, careful to not wipe off much of her lipstick but just enough to secure Hermes’s attention. “I stay here on the couch, and you can feed me grapes and cheese cubes?”

“We’re out of those.”

“What? No way!” Using her core muscles, Jolyne raised her torso off of the couch seat for a few moments then supported herself with an arm rested behind her. Hermes silently nodded her head and smirked at the childish disappointment draped upon Jolyne’s face before she plopped back down onto the couch. “I was looking forward to eating one or two of those…”

“Rough day?” Hermes chomped on a few almonds of a packet she pulled from her pocket, raising her own legs to rest on the wooden frame of the coffee table positioned uncomfortably close to the couch. If either girl didn’t mind the position of their legs, they could easily bump and bruise their shins against the flat edges of the table, but there was little room to negotiate its position. The living room was already small, so there was little they could do about the limited space between the couch and the television stand. Still, they wanted a coffee table and accepted the space sacrifice. Jolyne groaned and threw her arm over her eyes, and Hermes silently indulged in watching how her breasts rose and fell with every breath she took as well as the occasional twitching and flexing of her abdominal muscles exposed to the chilly indoor air. Despite how delectable Jolyne’s abdomen appeared, Hermes couldn’t understand her logic in insisting on wearing crop tops in all weather, including the chilly winter nights in northern Florida. Jolyne turned her head to the side and groaned when she looked upon her schoolbag.

“This semester is a pain in the ass. I have no idea what I’m doing, and my parents are already asking me if I have a job lined up for the spring.” With a great inhale, she sighed and flattened on the seat of the couch. “And on top of all that, I got a C on my last test.”

“You sound like you need some time off,” Hermes produced some almonds in the palm of her hand and tossed one into her mouth, “I know of a place we can go to this weekend to kick back and relax. You know that Happy Spa place in the shopping market across the street from school? We can go there, get a massage, and call it a day.”

“Do they even accept walk-ins? And I want more than a massage.” Jolyne lifted herself up off the seat of the couch and sat crossed-legged next to Hermes. “Let’s just fuck it and have a good time out. You know, to the movies, dinner, _and_ the spa. Just the two of us.” She put a hand on the triceps of Hermes’s upper arm. “We deserve it.”

“So, a ladies’ night out?”

“Exactly.” Jolyne mirrored Hermes’s smile when she spotted the edges of her girlfriend’s lips edge upwards and could barely contain her excitement that she flopped back onto the couch and mindlessly stared at the television screen. “Is there anything good on?”

A few nights later, Hermes splashed water on her face in the bathroom and dried herself with a butterfly-themed hand towel that Jolyne advocated for placing into their apartment, even if they live there for only the semester. Meanwhile, Jolyne adjusted the fit of her bra in front of the full-length mirror in their room then slipped into her crop top and low-waist boot-cut jeans and glided into the bathroom to check up on the other girl. Neither of them had applied their makeup, but since they were visiting the spa first, they planned on indulging themselves in a complete pamper party before heading to dinner then the movie theater. Within an hour, they finished dressing and used the GPS on Jolyne’s phone to guide them to the nearest Happy Spa. Once there, they hopped out of the car, walked into the building and immediately requested a manicure, pedicure with massage, eyebrow waxing, and professional makeover. Hours later, they walked out of the spa with shiny and trimmed toenails upon soft feet in their sneakers, manicured fingernails that glimmered with glitzy polish and decorated with small scale-like jewels at the base, and professional makeup complementing their skin, and eye color that was a refreshment from their own makeup habits. Without a budget in mind, they quickly blew through one-hundred dollars on themselves then two-hundred at the restaurant when they ordered rounds of appetizers and drinks before their entrees. Neither of them had even eaten during the day, so their empty stomachs convinced them to order whatever they desired. They even indulged on drinks; Jolyne had always wanted to sip on Chardonnay during dinner like her mother, and Hermes generously poured herself that sweet red wine she loved. Giddy and merry with excitement for the rest of the night, they left the restaurant and stumbled into the theater across the parking lot, but Jolyne found it hard to stay awake in the middle of the movie while Hermes sipped on water she had snuck in periodically, and slipped into the bathroom every now and again, wondering if she felt confident enough to drive home in the middle of the night every time she splashed cold water on her hands and examined her droopy, reddened, and fatigued eyes in the mirror. When the movie ended, she decided she was sober enough to handle the drive home, but Jolyne struggled to shake herself awake and needed to be helped into the car then into the apartment. Hermes may not have remembered how it happened, but they managed to trudge themselves across the entryway, slink their way into the bedroom, and crash upon the bed.

The next morning, Hermes sipped on some water, sluggish with a headache from a hangover last night, and nearly dropped her water bottle when she opened up a white envelope on the kitchen table and stared down the amount they owed in rent at the end of next week. Instead, the envelope fell from her hand and floated onto the table. Within minutes, she rushed into the bedroom and shook Jolyne awake. Of course, Jolyne responded with a whimper and groan, so Hermes ripped off the blankets, tugged on her leg and muttered her name with increasing urgency to drag her out of bed and into their kitchen, handed her the letter from their landlord and waited as her expression broke free from exhaustion to contort with worry, disbelief, and anger. “Do you have any more money in your reserves?” Hermes knew Jolyne referred to her money pockets within her breasts, but she solemnly shook her head in defeat.

“I checked before I woke you up. We spent most of it last night. I didn’t even realize it,” She made a sad smile and even scoffed at herself for being so careless. How could she have forgotten their monthly rent was due so soon? They earned just enough money to pay their rent and afford their car bills, leaving a little for frivolous spending every month, but they had thrown all caution and care to the wind on one night of fun without regard to their present world of troubles. Bitterly, Hermes added, “…And we’re running out of food in the fridge.” Jolyne couldn’t believe her words and shrugged, throwing the piece of paper onto the table as if it had just bit her, and walked away with her fingers pressed to the temples of her forehead. “We’ll need to go food shopping soon.”

“Oh, that’s just,” She struggled to find her words around the great desire to scream in the middle of the kitchen. “That’s just…the fucking _best_ , you know?” She turned on her heel and paced back towards the table, her head up and eyes closed while Hermes furiously texted on her phone. The next few minutes passed in agonizing silence as Hermes stared at her phone screen, putting it down for only a few seconds then snatching it up as soon as she heard the notification jingle. Meanwhile, Jolyne slunk down in a chair, head resting on the table in defeat and buried by her arms. Lost in despair, she saw nothing else to do for the moment than to play with her braids with her fingers and wait until her grief passed over. She didn’t expect Hermes to suddenly leave the table and grab a magazine issue from the hoard they had collected over the year. She plopped the magazine onto the table and swiftly flipped to a certain page outlined in the most recent text message she received. There, she found it—the amateur modeling advertisement for an adult magazine her friend had described to her over the phone through texts. _‘Attention aspiring models!’_ It flashed with tacky bright colors overlapping the image of a blonde woman in a bikini and lounging on the hood of a Cadillac during a summer day. _‘Do you think you have the necessary qualities to become a model? If so, come along to Yellow Submarine Studios, 9020 East Bank Lane, Every Saturday and Sunday for an adult Photoshoot! WE PAY YOU! $200 per person, per photo. We are looking for Adults: 18-30 years for catalogue, photographic, fashion and promotional work. No experience necessary and no height restrictions. Arrive anytime between 10:00am-5:00pm. The earlier you arrive, the quicker you will be seen. No Agency Fees.’_ Hermes could hardly believe the sweet promises offered by the ad before her. That would pay enough for the month’s rent plus their bills! She reminded herself, however, that it was a one-time gig and that she would commit to follow a budget with her next paycheck to keep them above the waters. For now, she prepared herself to capitalize on the opportunity that sprung up and vowed to get herself and her girlfriend into a steady financial future. “Why did we have to go crazy last night and spend the last of our paychecks?” Jolyne whined, her voice muffled from under her arms. “Why did I have to be so stupid to even suggest that?”

“Jolyne, look at this.” She flipped the magazine around and frantically tapped on Jolyne’s forearm. “My friend has connections to this gig for a modeling studio for this weekend. Get this—they’re offering $200 per photo per person, which is enough to cover our rent and to pay off the rest of our bills. This could be our chance to get the hell out of this mess,” Jolyne didn’t move from her spot right away. After a delay of a few seconds of mentally bemoaning her foolishness for carelessly spending every cent she worked hard for and from the embarrassment of receiving her parents’ lectures that would surely result if they caught wind of this predicament. “Jolyne, we need rent money; we need _food_ money. This could give us all of that,” Hermes pointed and jabbed at the magazine ad with every word she spoke. She also subconsciously leaned in closer to Jolyne to be better heard. “And it’s only just this once. I know a girl there, and she says it’s a one-and-done deal. We show up, they take our picture, and we get paid in cash. It’s not like we need to sign up for a contract or anything.”

Jolyne clasped her hands upon her head, fiddling with her buns absentmindedly with her chin resting on the table. She felt the crushing burden of financial responsibility on her shoulders and the remorse of indulging on herself a few nights before with Hermes all at once, but she knew her options were rapidly disappearing. Rent was due next week, and they knew for certain that the landlord wouldn’t allow them to delay this payment. After all, they still haven’t found the way off of his bad side ever since throwing that Independence Day party months ago and damaging the front lawn and part of the apartment. She pulled at her hair a bit, inhaled sharply, and with one breath, she raised her head and declared, “Okay, let’s do it. When can we start?”

“I’ll give my friend a call. They seem to be pretty desperate in hitting their deadlines, so my best guess is that we can start on Saturday.” Hermes took back the magazine ad and immediately dialed on her phone twice, once to call her friend then a second time to call the advertised agency in the magazine. Still, in the back of Jolyne’s mind, she heard a small voice scolding her for being this reckless and desperate. She felt that she didn’t have any other choice but to go forward, and she couldn’t admit to the shame of asking her parents to cover her bills. So, she willed herself to follow Hermes forward and hope that at least it wasn’t a scam.

A few minutes past ten in the morning, Hermes drove them over to the advertised building and into the parking lot during the next Saturday. “This is the building. 9020 East Bank Lane, just like the ad said.” Hermes said and pocketed a white piece of paper where she had written the address from the magazine and the contact name her friend had given her over the phone. They parked in front of a large square building in the middle of the flat plains of an industrial park. Jolyne would be lying to herself if she didn’t acknowledge her stomach leaping inside of her—she didn’t know why she heard this persistent nagging feeling that someone, somewhere would discover what she came here to do, but when Hermes impatiently gestured for her to leave the car, she felt she had no other choice. She was already here; she might as well make her money and secure her life. “It doesn’t look like much. It’s just some plain-looking building.” Hermes said.

“At least it’s not in a back alley and run by a slum lord. Or even worse, in a shitty run-down apartment building.” Jolyne sighed, walked past Hermes and pretended not to notice her eyes looking at her. “Let’s go and get this over with.” Hermes followed with a pleased grin, zippering up her purse, hitting the lock button on her car keys, and scanning the building for signs of a front entrance. They passed by dozens of cars as they followed the parking lot to its end where the sidewalk sloped downwards and led them to a series of small flights of steps to the front entrance. The building itself loomed over them, large and mostly rectangular shaped fitted with concrete walls and many floor to ceiling window panels, but given the size of the massive building, Jolyne assumed that it must house multiple businesses inside and not just this modeling agency. At the front door, Hermes observed a door bell by the handle of the door she had pulled in a futile attempt to open it, and she pressed the doorbell to be greeted by the sharp sound of metal unlocking itself. Tentatively, she pulled on the door again and relaxed her tense shoulders when it opened, and she stepped inside with Jolyne just behind her. The receptionist, a middle-aged beauty who retained her title with a glamorous and tacky display of bold pink eyeshadow and red wine lipstick with rosy blush, greeted them with a smile, directed them to take a seat and messaged the director that his amateur young models had arrived. Within minutes, an agent, a slim woman in a black pencil skirt and a bright pink blouse with two unfixed buttons on her chest, entered the waiting room and recruited the girls to follow her through the endless corridors of the building and inevitably towards the center showroom.

When they entered the showroom floor, they felt conflicted over their first impressions of the scale of the room. It appeared to be not much more than a huge and hallowed warehouse floor in the center of the building; there were no windows, and the doors were the same kind of heavy steel double-doors they would see in a gymnasium—the same kind that slammed shut by themselves and jolted them when the sound echoed in the nearly empty room. The sickeningly fluorescent lighting above unnerved them somewhat as if eyes were set upon them immediately to undress their bodies and analyze every curve and muscle twitch they made while moving. There was another area against the wall blocked off by long, black drapes and illuminated by the tips of lighted mirrors peeking out over the curtain walls. A few stylists stepped out from the curtains, their heels clacking on the concrete floor when they approached the girls, and greeted them with smiles of lips colored with glossy lipstick and bright eyes underneath their false eyelashes. “Welcome, ladies. We’re excited you could help us today, but we’re running just a little behind schedule.” The coat of glitter stuck to their lips and smeared across their eyeshadow sparkled in the light and attracted more of the girls’ attention than their voices. It looked glamorous, even movie-star worthy, but a little too garish for a supposedly laid-back photoshoot. Incidentally, the aqua sheen of one of the designer’s lips helped Jolyne recall a time a year ago when she spent almost an hour locked in a bathroom and determined to apply her lipstick just right. Like the designer before her, she too opted for a matte aqua shade, followed up with a clear protective coating and finished with a dusting of aqua glitter. She had loved the look so much when she posed and pursed her lips in the mirror that she saved this treatment for special occasions, most notably for her birthday when she went on a date with Hermes to a bar into the late night. “If you’ll follow us, we’ll take you to the makeup studio and get you ready for your shoot. You are going to look like _goddesses_.” With a twirl, the stylists turned their backs and marched off onto the curtained area, and Jolyne shared a small nervous smile with Hermes.

“Where did you find these people?” Jolyne whispered as she walked with Hermes in tow. She surveyed the set and noted the workers buzzing around their cameras, capturing several moments of models holding themselves in risqué poses. Some of these models wore simple, skimpy outfits that hugged their curves, some a little tightly to bulge their voluptuous cheeks, breasts, or extra curves on the sides of their torsos while others were practically naked save for ridiculously thin ribbons or rope strategically placed to cover their goods. Regardless, the natural nude makeup on the faces of these models attracted Jolyne’s attention. It almost appeared as if they were just flesh dolls asked to pose in whatever position they deemed ‘tasteful,’ Jolyne presumed, without hesitation nor censorship.

“My friend managed to get her foot into the modeling industry through them.” Hermes whispered back. “She said it was a risky start since they’re such a small company, but it worked really well for her and got her noticed by big brand companies.” Jolyne felt giddy at the prospect of freeing herself and acting naughty for the cameras; it came attached to a certain thrill, a high that she simply would never get enough of and drowned out any concern for the consequences of her actions. She merely reasoned that the chances of her parents or anyone else in the family discovering the fruits of her playtime were too low to be of any real concern, so she dismissed those thoughts, held her head up high, stepped past the curtain to the stylist’s area and took a seat at the stylist’s direction.

The stylists worked diligently to apply their makeup, blending generously with a pallet of pigmented dust and finished with a nude shade of lipstick and sweet compliments of the fruits of their work. The girls admired their faces in the lighted mirrors and eagerly shuffled off to the smaller wardrobe stations where the stylists presented them with only a thong made of skimpy red ribbon. “You’ll undress here,” She spoke with a decisive tone and placed the thongs on the black bench in the center of the curtained space. Upon inspecting it further, it occurred to Jolyne that the thongs were so small and thin that she could probably fit the whole thing in her mouth if she rolled it up into a ball. “And when you’re ready, just step away from the curtains and towards set 23. You’ll see a tall sign with the set number hanging above the curtain walls between each set. The director is there, so you’ll meet him and he’ll take it from there. Any questions?” She gave an enthusiastic smile, amusement reflecting in her eyes as she watched the girls pick at the thongs, stretching them and feeling the thin material between their fingers. They felt suspiciously flimsy between the pads of Jolyne’s fingers. _These won’t snap off like cheap string in the middle of the shoot, right? Or maybe that’s by design_ , she thought and tried to pull on a piece of the string to test her theory before she realized that Hermes already started undressing and that they were held to a strict schedule. Hermes unbuttoned and unzipped Jolyne’s top, and it slipped off easily, followed by her bra, and almost immediately, she shivered at a sudden chill in the air when her breasts hung free and dangled like fruit when she squatted to slip off her pants, lacy panties, shoes and socks. Completely bare, she picked up the thong with two fingers, holding it out in front of her with a doubtful eye and plucked the other end of it with her free hand. Curious if it will even fit, she slipped one leg through then the other and slid the thong up the length of her legs, and it impressed her when it hugged the curves of her hips securely. She still felt as if she was wearing nothing more than string that failed to block any sudden air current from reaching her sensitive areas and chilling her sensitive parts. Furthermore, the string easily slipped between her vulva lips and stretched around between her ass cheeks; she knew that if she moved carelessly, the string-like ribbon would only hold her privates even tighter like an ill-fitting pair of jeans she secretly loved to wear for this fact alone.

Hermes finished dressing a little earlier than Jolyne and inspected herself in the full-body mirror standing in the corner. “Ugh, they expect us to wear this string for the whole shoot? Why even bother?” She twisted her torso around to better inspect the mirrored reflection of her practically bare ebony cheeks jiggling slightly when she shivered from sudden chills. “We’re practically naked.” For a few moments, Jolyne lost herself in Hermes’s form posing for the mirror, how her toned muscled arms held themselves above her head, dark dreadlocks of hair curving around her neck and resting on her soft-looking chest and along her back, how her spine elegantly curved from the tip of her crack and hid itself under a curtain of the most inviting hair she had ever seen, and the muscled thickness of her thighs flexing and relaxing, quivering occasionally when she turned and twirled. She lost herself in thoughts of those finely-sculpted legs, the finest she had ever seen, and she gravitated towards them; she glided behind Hermes, slipped one hand to cup an ass cheek and the other around her torso to rest her hand on her abdomen and casually trace a fingertip around the rim of her navel and over her belly-button piercing she had gotten with Jolyne when they first started dating.

“You should model this for me more often,” She purred and summoned goosebumps across Hermes’s skin. Carefully, she rested her chin on Hermes’s shoulder and rocked their bodies while sneaking two fingers underneath the ribbon snuggly hugging her hips. If she didn’t have the fresh professional makeup on her face, she would have given Hermes a kiss on the cheek, followed by a series of ravishing kisses on her neck, but she wouldn’t risk smearing her lipstick. Surely that would look awful in the pictures and she would have to explain why she ruined the stylists’ hard work. Instead, she opted for a quick open-palmed smack on her ass and grinned deviously at her sharp gasp, the clap of flesh ringing clear like a bell in their ears and the subsequent shocked, wide-eyed glare from Hermes.

“Ladies,” They jumped at the stylist’s cool voice just beyond the curtains and wondered why they hadn’t realized the sound of clicking heels approaching them sooner. She peeked her head from the edge of the black curtain wall before stepping out and placing two pairs of ankle-strapped black stilettos onto the bench with a knowing smile when she spotted the girls. The stilettos were made with black velvet smoothed over with care and clear plastic three-inch heels bedazzled with silver jewels around the top where it connects with the heel of the shoe. “You have plenty of time to do that later, ladies,” She winked and gestured towards the shoes. “I forgot to give you these. You’ll be wearing these as well during the shoot. Be careful and try not to trip and fall.” At the call of the stylist, Jolyne backed off from Hermes and stared at the shoes, fearing that they would feel as uncomfortable as they looked. When the stylist disappeared behind the wall of flowing black cloth, Jolyne took her place at the bench and slipped the shoes on then held onto Hermes’s shoulder for balance as she shakily stood up. She had worn heels before, but she always preferred a heel with a wider base so that she could balance herself with ease and still enjoy the intimidating air she created when her heels clacked on the ground. The larger length and narrow base of the stiletto heels proved to be another challenge. If she concentrated hard enough, she could find her balance but at the cost of consciously stepping with the pad of her foot on the ground first with each and every step.

“You ready?” Hermes said, and when she took her by the hand, they stepped out from behind the show curtains and entered the showroom floor crawling with set workers. Clad in nothing by a red ribbon thong buried between their ass cheeks, a short rectangular piece of cloth strategically placed to cover their southern lips, and strappy stilettos with a clear and colorless plastic heel glittering in the hot lights with silvery gems, they moved across the set and introduced themselves with the clacking of their heels upon the cold concrete floor. The meat of their ass cheeks jiggled with every step, the muscles underneath flexing and shaping the soft mounds of flesh free from confining cloth. Their rotund breasts, perked and plump, hopped slightly in tune with their steps and flushed in the bright lights of the photoset. They held their heads up with pride and perhaps a bit of giddiness of clearly feeling the air currents waft around their bodies. In fact, the pricking of goosebumps across their arms and legs made them wonder if someone had the audacity to turn on the air conditioning in the building because they hadn’t noticed it with their clothes on. Still, they marched on, meeting the gazes of every set worker and model they passed, but they couldn’t brush off the ever present chills that stiffened the buds of their nipples and influenced their hearts to race. When they reached the director, he swiftly guided them onto the set, and the instructions for their poses immediately poured from his lips.

“Ladies, you look lovely,” With one hand, he gestured them to come closer, and with the other, he pointed to a small bed decorated with red pillows embroidered with evergreen trees, holly, snowflakes, and snowmen. The girls felt some mild embarrassment when it clicked that this was a Christmas photoshoot and they starred fittingly as holiday gifts, but Jolyne still relished in this freedom and enthusiastically jumped into every pose, rushing forward and practically dragging Hermes behind her. The director leaned over his chair to exchange instructions with a cameraman then turned his attention to the ladies with a warm smile on his lips. “All right, ladies, we’ll start with a few couples poses.” As the director described his vision purely from memory, Jolyne inhaled deeply and climbed up onto the bed. When Hermes joined her, they held hands for a moment, turning their attention to the director when he wanted it and shifted closer to each other. For their first pose, they embraced each other, inching closer until their breasts squished and flattened, pressed to bulge from their sides, and Jolyne giggled at Hermes’s small grin when she felt their stiffened nipples poke each other. She knew that Hermes could feel it too and deliberately pressed herself harder to elicit her shocked grin. When the girls returned to focus, they embraced each other—Hermes’s arms loosely wrapped around Jolyne’s waist while Jolyne’s arms draped around her neck. At the director’s request, they kept their lips mere centimeters from each other, fighting the urge to giddily grin when the camera flashes showered them with glittering silvery-white flashes, and Jolyne thought that if she inched just a bit closer, she could kiss Hermes right on the lips. The smell of the nearly empty concrete room mixed with her girlfriend’s soft scent of fruit tempted her to become swept away with the attention of the moment and disregard the director’s comments, but instead, the temptation of the director’s requested poses piqued her interest even more. She held herself just centimeters away from Hermes, their mouths opened and tongues out, ghosting over each other. Sometimes they kept their eyes closed, imagining playing this out and recording it in their room, and other times, they looked into the camera lens and pressed their groins until they were flush together.

Jolyne kept her enthusiasm as she hopped into every pose, cuddling and smooshing herself against her girlfriend just the way the director wanted, even sticking her ass up and wiggling it around to get into the vibe. Hermes matched her enthusiasm with a serious demeanor, often getting into the poses she has with Jolyne, grabbing a palmful of her ass or tracing her fingers across her lips. While tangled over each other, the red string of the thong tightened and squeezed against their clits when it rode up further between their vulva lips and made them increasingly aware of their vulnerable positions. Yet, the electricity of their reality only jolted their hearts with excitement and spurred them forward. It was only a photoshoot, after all. They knew they weren't going to be in a video, so they would have to recreate this scene on their own.

In another pose, Hermes shifted to kneel closely behind Jolyne and placed one hand on her waist, almost deliberately dangerously close to her groin at the border of her V-line, and the other hand held Jolyne’s shoulder while her lips kissed her exposed neck. Jolyne’s ass complimented the fit of Hermes’s lap, and she leaned her head to the side to welcome those lips to more of her neck, arched her back to better display her rotund breasts, closed her eyes, and bit her lip in satisfaction. It felt almost natural to playfully pose with her girlfriend, and it wasn’t much different than what they would normally do with each other, so she figured that the director had a good taste. The camera technicians rewarded her proud and tasteful display by jamming their trigger-happy fingers onto their shutter buttons, bathing the girls in shimmering silver light accompanied by generous praise from the director.

"That's it, ladies! That's it!" He waved a rolled-up magazine clutched in his hand and grinned at the fortune of finding a star piece that would surely stand out from his competitors. ‘ _Are these girls professional models_ , _’_ he wondered, discerning eyes analyzing their form from behind his glass frames. _‘Do they aspire to be professional models?’_ He had toyed with the idea of extending an offer for a permanent position within his modeling staff since it would be a shame to waste such natural talent, but he decided to shelve it and awaited to see their individual photoshoots. "Show how much you love each other! Excellent, excellent. Don’t hold back now. You're madly in love with each other and want the world to know." If the rapidly flashing lights, barks of the director, eyes of multiple people including her girlfriend, the way Hermes’s face glowed and made her groin tickle, and how the electrifying air aroused her, Jolyne may have entertained second thoughts trailing that last comment _. ‘What if Mom and Dad saw…any of this?’_ She dared to entertain this thought and suffered unsettling and humiliating mortification chilling her skin, _‘What are the chances? It’s not like they look at this stuff.’_ She released these thoughts and buried them far back, even forcing herself to follow the director’s shift in instructions and move to lay on her back on the bed. Hermes crawled on top of her, one hand resting on her ribcage just below her breast and the other cupping the curvature of her ass cheek then slipping between her thighs and gently massaging her inner upper thighs.

In yet another pose, the director craned his neck to the side, whispered words with a few supervisors and decided that he had gathered enough couple poses from the girls and wanted to shift towards individual photosets. Jolyne had volunteered to be photographed first, and after a brief moment of the director muttering a string of lines Jolyne couldn’t comprehend to another stylist, the stylist nodded along and escorted Jolyne back to the changing station deep within the labyrinth of black curtains. “The director wants a change of scenery and so you’ll be wearing a different costume.” She flitted out of the room, gliding smoothly on the hard floor in her chic pumps with purpose and grace, and she returned within two minutes. Admittedly, Jolyne had expected to see another skimpy outfit, perhaps some lacy lingerie or thigh-high stockings, but instead, she was greeted by the sight of two royal azure butterfly nipple covers and another thong held together with the thinnest white string Jolyne had ever seen which connected a network of smaller butterflies elegantly forming a V. The color of the outfit attracted her as soon as her gaze fell on it then she realized that this thong appeared even flimsier and that there was nothing covering her backside, and she questioned the strength of the nipple covers. She had never worn those before, and the thought of having one of them start to peel off during the shoot instantly crossed her mind. Still, the director already had a few shots of her breasts in his collection, what could another possibly do? There wasn’t much else she could hide from the gazes of the camera lenses and the visionary directors. When the stylist slipped behind the black curtains, Jolyne slid the red ribbon thong off and exchanged it for the one made of cloth butterflies and string then peeled off the sticky backs of the nipple covers and stuck them onto her breasts. As she examined herself in the full-body mirror, the strength of the nipple covers exceeded her expectations, the butterfly-shaped v on her crotch admittedly handled covering the opening of her vulva a little better, but it left very little to the imagination. The V-shape fit into the natural downward slope of her groin nicely, and the strings firmly hugged the curves of her hips, holding in the flesh of her cheeks and making each cheek bulge in-between the six strings, to meet together at a point at the base of her spine. When she twirled around and twisted her torso a little, she noted a small white bow stitched into the string just above the dip of her crack. ‘ _How cute_ , _’_ she mused and gave her ass a small slap to see it jiggle in the mirror for the hell of it since she didn’t sense anyone nearby. Thoroughly satisfied with her new attire, she bounced out of the changing room with a confident grin and rejoined the director at a new set. Here, she posed on a bed made of fake leaves, leaning back on her arms and spreading her legs about half a foot wide and kept them bent slightly at the director’s insistence. At once, the cameras showered her in glamourous silver light, and as she delved deeper into the role, she threw her previous doubts away and looked into the camera lenses with devious and pleading eyes. She bit her bottom lip at times, smiled sweetly, or pursed her lips, whatever had elicited the most praise from the director in that moment.

In her final pose, the camera recorded her side as she laid flat on her stomach and lowered her legs until the string of her thong became caught in the heel of her shoe. When she flexed her leg out, the thong stretched with it over the curve of her ass, and she placed her head to the side so she could look directly into the camera frame. She loved that photo the most and ogled it for at least an hour when she and Hermes were gifted a free copy of the magazine in the mail after it went published. Josuke, Koichi, and Okuyasu, however, receded with disgust and horror when they had the misfortune of spotting those images of Jolyne in various lewd poses after a magazine copy fell from the table and flipped to that very page like a sign from God. Koichi noticed it first when made to pick the magazine up, and he flinched away as if the smoothed published papers had burned him. A stuttering mess, he fumbled with the magazine, picking it up precariously with two fingers as if it was covered in shit and plopping it back onto the table, but before he could keep it a secret, he attracted Okuyasu’s attention. “Koichi? Why do you look pale all of a sudden?” Koichi swallowed hard under the hot gaze of Okuyasu, and instinctually he glanced towards the magazine folded over itself. Fortunately, the picture of Jolyne was hidden from his sight, but to his horror, Okuyasu had followed his eyes and snatched the magazine off of the table. With a smirk and a devious glint in his eyes, he looked down upon Koichi and taunted him by waving the rolled-up magazine in his fist. “Oh~? Is Yukako not doing it for ya? So you like reading these girly magazines, huh, Koichi?” Josuke snickered from across the room and strolled over to Okuyasu while also smirking knowingly at Koichi.

“W-wait,” Koichi made to grab the horrible magazine from Okuyasu to appease the feeling of his heart dropping to his stomach, but Okuyasu pulled back and started flipping through the pages. “That’s not it at all, Okuyasu! Don’t look at that magazine!”

“Don’t worry, Koichi,” Josuke sneered while looking over Okuyasu’s shoulder and taking in the shameless displays on the shiny print pages. “We won’t tell Yukako about your dirty habits.”

“No! That’s not what I meant!” He lunged forward to grab the magazine again, but Okuyasu quickly turned around and kept the magazine at arm’s length. Desperate, Koichi tried reaching around him, but he could see that they were getting dangerously close to the page that shocked him the most. “Please, please, _please_ , don’t look through that magazine! Okuyasu! You’ll regret it, I swear!”

“Your weak threats won’t work, Koichi,” Okuyasu retorted and greedily flipped through more pages, and when he arrived at the very one Koichi had been dreading the most, he stopped and his jaw dropped open. He found that his eyes couldn’t leave the centerfold on the page, and he gawked at the sight of Jolyne laying on her back on a bed of leaves, arms stretched over her head, and covered by only two small butterfly nipple covers and the thong of butterflies forming a V over her groin. “Josuke,” He spoke with a grim and quiet voice in abject horror, and with sweating palms and a racing heart, he held the magazine at arm’s length from himself. “W-what is this?” _That can’t be Jolyne_ , Josuke wondered, but as he lingered on her characteristic hairstyle, he couldn’t be more certain that it was his great niece posed like a pin-up model across the pages. “We have to burn it, Josuke!” Okuyasu tossed the magazine to the floor and quickly turned away, rubbing at his eyes as if to scrub the mental image of Jolyne out of his mind. Josuke wanted to do the same, but instead, he fidgeted in place, alternating looking at the magazine then to the appalled face of Koichi and the trembling form of Okuyasu clearly being tormented by what his eyes had just witnessed. Still, he ran forward and snatched the magazine off of the ground, holding it away from him and debating whether or not to chuck it against the wall or rip it into halves against his knee.

“I-I’m gonna rip it up!” Josuke declared with sweaty, trembling hands twisting the smooth paper.

“Burn _what_?” In that moment, Josuke couldn’t be more thankful that his back was turned towards the doorway because from the shadow casted upon the floor and the sudden slight darkening of the room, he knew that Jotaro currently stood there and that there was a good chance that he hadn’t caught sight of the disgusting magazine in his hands. With humiliating embarrassment, he realized that Jotaro must have heard the loud noises and voices coming from them when they found the magazine and so went to investigate and scold them for creating a racket. With every second that passed by, Josuke knew he appeared more and more suspicious to Jotaro who now focused his curiosity and attention on Josuke’s back after observing the mixed expressions of concern and surprise on Okuyasu’s and Koichi’s faces. If he observed even more closely, he could even see fear in their eyes.

“I-It was nothing.” Josuke replied, slowly turning around after rolling up the magazine into a firm tube. “Koichi just saw this _huge_ spider, that’s all, and I squashed it,” He brandished the rolled up paper in his hand with a triumphant smile forced as best as he could under the great pressure that tormented his mind and nerves. “I’ll just go and throw this magazine out, seeing as how there’s a squashed spider stain on it.” Jotaro seemed unimpressed by that answer in how his face remained expressionless, but one slight nod from him and his exit from the room told Josuke that he was off the hook for now. With a heavy sigh, Josuke relaxed his shoulders and immediately tossed the magazine into the small trash can.

“Josuke, what are we gonna do about this? If Jotaro sees it--” Okuyasu started, sweat beading on his forehead, and Josuke swallowed hard while flipping through ideas in his mind for an answer.

“ _He’s not_ ,” He spoke quietly and carefully, uttering every word deliberately slowly to convince himself that the potential disaster in front of them could still be avoided. “ _He’s not_ going to find out. And we’re not going to tell him. At all. We’re just going to go about our lives,” He gathered Okuyasu and Koichi near him and looked into their eyes in turn, “And we’re going to forget about it. Maybe watch over Jolyne a little, but we absolutely can’t let this get out to Jotaro or Usagi. So, just… _play it cool_.” He closed his eyes and took a deep breath after that last statement as he knew his voice would waver when his brain forced the mental image of his great niece in that lewd pose. It was too much to bear for him, and so he, Okuyasu, and Koichi quickly left to distract themselves with last-minute holiday shopping.

When Jotaro returned to the room later that day, he grabbed the trashcan Josuke had tossed the magazine into and carried it outside of the room and into the hallway on his way to bring it downstairs and dump the contents into a larger trash bag. However, along the way towards the hallway, he unintentionally slammed the trashcan into the side of a table and spilled the few contents onto the floor, including the magazine. “Dammit,” He muttered and lowered himself to pick up the magazine. After hitting the floor, however, the magazine had plopped open to yet another page featuring Jolyne immortalized in a pose where she laid on the bed on her stomach and lifted up her thong string by the heel of her studded stiletto. And he had seen it. He froze for a few seconds as his eyes scanned the page. Was this a porno magazine? He didn’t recall purchasing one and knew Usagi wouldn’t be interested in one. It had to belong to either Koichi, Josuke, or Okuyasu. But what in the hell was his oldest daughter doing as a centerfold in this magazine? The commonplace stoic expression he held gradually melted away to a strange mixture of horror, confusion, and concern before something snapped and he snatched the magazine off of the floor and rushed out of the room. “Oh, Jotaro,” Usagi had called from the steps when she heard him practically barrel out of the room upstairs. “Is something wrong? You look like you’re in a hurry.” As she talked, he never slowed down and descended the staircase with the magazine still clutched in his hand. Solemnly, he handed her the magazine and pointed to the cursed image on the page he had the misfortune to see, and if he wasn’t standing in front of her to catch her, Usagi felt like she would have fainted on the floor.

It was time for the annual Joestar family Christmas gathering, and one-by-one, relatives and friends crossed the threshold of Usagi and Jotaro’s house, greeting the ecstatic and gracious Usagi at the front door. Usually, Jotaro showed little care for these parties and remained reluctant to arrive, but Usagi had wanted to host one of them and gather the whole family together under their roof. Christmas proved to be the perfect opportunity for her to display her love for her family and invite them into her home, and her enthusiasm, serious planning, and charming persistence had worn Jotaro’s resolve down until he felt that it would simply be easier and less annoying to agree with her wishes. So, Usagi hurriedly ran to the door each time she heard the chime of the doorbell and welcomed the guest inside. First, she greeted her parents and her younger brother with a hug each and babbled on senselessly about how joyful she felt to see the three of them able to make it, or at least it sounded like babbling to Jotaro. Not to mention, she easily became carried away in the excitement and talked ceaselessly, so he silently slinked away into the much quieter kitchen to prepare the food. Next, his grandfather Joseph had arrived along with his wife Suzi Q and Shizuka. In fact, Usagi had noticed their car pulling up to the side of the road, briefly sliding down the hallway in her socks upon the wooden floor just before the kitchen and calling out, “Jotaro! Jotaro! Your grandfather’s here! Come out and help him inside,” then she slipped on her shoes and rushed out of the house when she spotted Joseph stiffly exit the car at a snail’s pace and retrieve his cane. He adjusted his glasses upon seeing a short light-haired woman blitzing over to him and sighed in contentment as he registered Usagi, his granddaughter-in-law, and welcomed her gentle aid. Usagi greeted all of them with warm hugs then carefully held onto Joseph’s arm and helped him maintain balance as he walked forward. She keenly remembered that the old Joestar was no longer steady on his feet. Decades of rheumatoid arthritis, stiff joints, aching muscles, and a heart weakened by a heart attack just last year weighed down on his entire body, forcing him to rely on a wooden cane to assist him in even walking. Yet, his aged clearly showed as every step towards the house proved to be a challenge in how sluggish he lifted his feet to clear the next step. However, patiently waiting for him to clear the steps came naturally to her, and she offered words of encouragement and guidance—he was clearly getting older, and she tried her best to be supportive of him for their family’s sake. Joseph tried his best to be patient, but he felt embarrassed to be doted on so much by his family; it only highlights his age, but he still feels a spring of life within his steps. By the time they had cleared the first flight of steps, Jotaro had appeared at the front door to prop the storm door open and standby, observing Joseph steadily make his way to the final flight of steps and into the house. When they approached, Joseph greeted Jotaro with a gentle pat on the cheek and the shoulder, a smile and a friendly hello before tackling the last step to enter the home. Jotaro had also replaced Usagi as Joseph’s support and clasped onto his arm with firm strength, nearly pulling him along, and stood ready to catch him should he stumble. “Jiji, watch it,” He instructed with a clear and strict tone, “Pick your foot up. There’s another step.” It became a common challenge in Joseph’s life, to climb the steps, so he laughed it off as a routine comedic act of his old life.

“I see it. I see it, Jotaro,” Joseph sighed in mild irritation, and looked down to watch his shaky foot rise from one step and clear the shelf of the next into the entryway of the house. “I’m not that old,” He mumbled then lifted himself up and placed his other foot on the next step. If he wobbled while balanced on one foot, Jotaro swiftly caught him with his arm wrapped around his back and held him in place until he reclaimed his balance. His grandson remained as strong as he remembered in his youth to support most of his weight, and Joseph chuckled when he reflected on his situation. “Don’t grow old, Jotaro.”

“I know, Jiji,” There was a small, almost unnoticeable smile, on Jotaro’s lips. It was an odd joke for Joseph to give, but one that he’s been telling Jotaro for the last ten years, ever since Joseph’s health has been steadily declining. With an artery virtually completely clogged and coronary damage from a heart attack he had survived through last year after the first one several years ago, living became an uphill challenge for Joseph, prompting Jotaro to be overbearing at times when assisting Joseph getting into and out of the car and tackling the steps. Still, Joseph found the opportunity to crack a joke here and there with his grandson. Behind them, Shizuka patiently waited for her elderly father to enter the home, holding onto the arm of her mother Suzi Q while chatting up Usagi about her new work position.

“No, you don’t know,” Joseph answered. It was common for him to respond to Jotaro in this way as a subtle warning to the challenges old age will bring him. He supposed that he was already beginning to feel the effects of getting older with grey hair resulting from years of PTSD-induced stress invading his black strands and the eye injury he suffered a few years ago ridding him of most of his vision in his right eye. They both knew time and life were marching forward and showing the wear and tear on their bodies.

Next, Josuke with Koichi and Okuyasu had arrived and parked his car on the side of the street. Giorno appeared not too much longer than that, but the boys who were tormented with the image of Jolyne posed in that awful magazine tried their best to hide their fear when they greeted Usagi at the door and held a brief conversation with her. They just couldn’t believe it. She was such a sweet lady—they couldn’t possibly tell her what they had seen, nor could they tell Jotaro and run the risk of stoking the flames of his temper. She hugged each and every one of them, extending her dainty arms and gesturing them inside her home. How could they even begin to think about telling her? Josuke noticed the gazes Okuyasu and Koichi were shooting towards him—the nervous smiles and the trepidation within their eyes, especially when they saw Jotaro setting up the food in the dining room. As Usagi filled the room with chatter when she greet Giorno who never failed to charm her with a light kiss on her hand and a few kind words, Josuke huddled into a corner with Okuyasu and Koichi, speaking to them softly and closely while keeping an eye on the kitchen. “We don’t speak of… _that_ thing. Don’t even think about it! Just forget you ever saw it.” Koichi and Okuyasu quietly nodded, but the image was still fresh in their minds in the way that they flinched and averted their eyes when Jolyne walked down the steps after being called by her mother to greet the guests.

Days after the party, Usagi sat in the seat of a dining room chair next to her shamed daughter Jolyne who refused to make eye contact with her. Periodically, she opened and closed her mouth, trying to find the words to communicate how shocked and disappointed she felt upon seeing that awful magazine displaying her little girl as a whore, but the words left her silently as quickly as they could come. “…I-I don’t understand.” When she spoke, her voice was small but clear, and it alerted Jolyne that her mother was beyond upset with her. The thought of looking up to her father Jotaro, who stood away by the wall, never even crossed her mind. She couldn’t even stomach the thought of looking her father in the face who had seen that adult image of her posing with her girlfriend to appeal to certain demographic. She even wondered why she had the nerve to throw herself into that photoshoot with Hermes as if her parents would simply never see it. Yet, she didn’t count on those ads being discovered by Josuke, Koichi, and Okuyasu. “Why couldn’t you have talked to us?” Usagi looked to her face, the saddened light of disappointment and worry within her own eyes. “If you needed money for rent, your father and I could have helped you—you know that. We love you, and we want to help you.” Jolyne didn’t respond—her jaw grew heavy and she deliberately looked away from her mother to the floor. Before she knew it, she felt her eyes burn out of mortifying humility at the image of her parents discovering that ad image. It certainly didn’t help that she could feel her father’s eyes looking at her face too; surely, her parents would notice the shame in the glint of her eyes and the slightly reddening cheeks of her face. “Jolyne, look at me.” With a hard swallow and exhale, she brought her eyes towards Usagi’s face, feeling some relief when she found that her mother’s face was still as gentle as she remembers, but realizing her fears, she could see the hurt and shame within her mother’s blue eyes. “What were you thinking, going to a place like that? Don’t you realize how dangerous that is? What they could have done to girls like you and Hermes?” Without realizing it, Usagi’s voice grew a little louder, but in a remarkable feat, she refused to cry and let her emotions consume her. She concerned herself with protecting her child rather than letting herself get carried away with her own emotions.

“Mom,” Jolyne found the strength to speak her mind after once again feeling her time run thin and the increasing urgency to respond to her parents on her own before they demanded answers from her. She knew it was better this way as she could keep her tears back for a little while longer. “I wanted to take care of it myself,” She saw her mother flinch a little and open her mouth for a quick rebuttal, possibly to repeat what she had said before but more clearly this time, “And I understand that you’re looking out for me, but…I thought I could prove to myself that I would be fine on my own—that I could solve these problems and take care of myself without relying on you two for everything. And it worked out in the end! Hermes and I earned the money—“

“Give me a break,” When her father interjected and approached the dining room table, Usagi looked up at him and clearly saw that despite his stoic expression, there was concern within his eyes as well. “What you did was stupid. That could have been a modeling scam, and you could’ve fallen right into it.”

“But it wasn’t a scam! I knew it wasn’t because Hermes said she knows someone who works there—“

“That’s not the point here.” Jotaro sighed in annoyance, desperately trying to find the words to say, to communicate just how horrified, confused, and ashamed he felt when his eyes fatefully landed on that advertisement which flipped open to him when the magazine fell like some kind of sign from God. He knew he needed to be more verbal with his emotions—he had promised Usagi that, even if it meant coming out of his comfort zone time and again to make amends with his daughters—but this quickly proved to be a daunting challenge he was somewhat considering quitting out of habit. “I don’t care who Hermes knows—that could have been a fake advertisement to lure in young women like you to be drugged, raped and abandoned in a hotel room or in a back alley, or abducted, passed around like a sex doll and killed. How can you not realize how serious this is?” Usagi felt her skin crawl at the graphic imagery Jotaro had listed a little too easily for her liking, but she knew it had to be said even if their daughter also felt disgusted by the horrible truth. “Not to mention that those pictures are now out there for the whole world to see. Did you really not even think of that?” Defeated, Jolyne lowered her gaze and faced her mother.

“How much trouble am I in?”

“Jolyne,” Usagi’s calm voice encouraged Jolyne to look at her, and she could tell her daughter came even closer to crying in frustration. So, she opted for a gentler, kinder approach even if Jotaro wouldn’t agree. “You’re a big girl now. Please promise us that if you’re in anymore trouble that you’ll reach out to us. I don’t know…I really don’t know how this will affect you in the future, but there’s nothing we can do about it now. But we’ll still be here for you. We’re your parents, we love you, and we want to support you. So, just,” She paused a little when her voice weakened and pinched the bridge of her nose to gather her thoughts. “Maybe, be more careful next time, okay? Could you do that?” Jolyne only managed to nod her head and give a thankful smile towards her mother before returning to her room and mindlessly scrolling through her social media blogs to clear her mind until she slept. Meanwhile, Usagi remained at her seat on the dining room and stared at the floor while Jotaro leaned up against the wall. They spent some time in silent contemplation over their daughter and the wordless fear that still lingered between them. “Jotaro,” When she spoke, she looked up to his face and although he remained expressionless, she could see the fear clouding his aquamarine eyes as well. “That was too close. Too, too close. I’m worried about her. Should we ask her to transfer to a different school that’s closer to us so she can stay at home?” He exhaled deeply and she could barely sit still when her anxiety pricked. “I knew it was too soon to let her live by herself. I can’t help but worry for her.” As she spoke, he approached her and placed a large hand on her shoulder that slid to her mid-back and supported her when she leaned into his warm touch. She sighed to steady her nerves before looking up to him and met his gaze for a few seconds in silence. “…Okay. I’ll leave it alone for now. Maybe I am being such a worrywart,” She stood up from the chair and led the way to the living room. She felt too upset to sleep properly at the moment and preferred to let her mind be eased by a cheesy holiday movie she loved. “I just hope everything works out for her.” Jotaro joined her on the couch, allowing her to lay her legs across his lap and watched her relax as best as she could.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Oh boy oh boy oh boy, I had the time of my life writing this chapter! It's fitting to update with the Christmas special on Christmas Day. Please leave comments with constructive criticisms or what you generally liked about the chapter. I have chapter 3 planned, but it'll be some while before it's actually posted. Here's a hint: a certain punk's birthday is coming up...


	3. It's Urgent! It's Real!

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Jotaro gets a rather big surprise when he least expects it. Decades of analyzing technical literature and fighting stand users couldn't possibly prepare him for this. And to top it all off, some of his own family members have been acting strangely lately. Still, he presses on with his routine work until a disturbing call sets off a chain reaction.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> CHAPTER WARNINGS: brief nudity, blood, general cuteness overload
> 
> Character Ages in Chapter 3:  
> Jotaro and Usagi: late forties  
> Jolyne: around 28  
> Chibiusa: 20 years  
> Josuke and Okuyasu: around 37  
> Giorno: around 34
> 
> Chapter 3: It's Urgent! It's real! takes place in late January to early February of 2020, which is sometime after chapter 2.

Jotaro Kujo faced a dilemma. He sat in the leather and mahogany desk chair of his work office, a decently sized space decorated lavishly with professional photos of schools of fish swimming in elegant lines around the bright branches of their coral reef homes and framed sea shells and replicas of fossilized shells and display starfish. Embedded into one of the walls, he kept a 50 gallon tank of many bright colored fish, some exotic, with all of the necessary maintenance supplies held in the wooden cabinets below the tank. Rows of book shelves stocked with thick academic textbooks, dozens of leather notebooks, and piles of magazines occupied the remaining empty wall space above and surrounding the tank as well as along the opposite wall above a sofa placed in there for guests. It was his collection of knowledge that he started during his last year of highschool when he devoured facts of marine life in any book or magazine he could get his hands on, but the majority of which came from his work as a PhD student while he carefully crafted his thesis.

Yet, in this moment, those memories were the last thing to come to mind. With every second that felt like an entire minute, he stared at Okuyasu’s panicked face through his phone screen and noted several crimson blood drops splattered across his face. “Jotaro-san!” Okuyasu screeched and frantically pointed to Josuke, the camera view of his phone blurring briefly before it revealed his younger uncle writhing on the ground, screaming and doubled-over in pain. At the very image of his relative clearly in distress during bizarre circumstances, he knew he had to act.

“Okuyasu,” His strong and steady voice supported Okuyasu’s spirit in that moment and guided him to focus his phone camera lens on himself and wait for Jotaro’s next words. “Tell me what happened. Where are you now?” With hands shaking and camera blurring Jotaro’s view of him frequently, it was a miracle that Okuyasu didn’t drop his phone in his panic. Yet, his mouth was dry in that moment, and he struggled to swallow and speak clearly. Tripping over his words, however, he pressed on and forced his thoughts out.

“We were walking through the city when we were attacked! An enemy stand user got Josuke!” He once again turned his phone’s camera lens to focus on Josuke and even held the phone close to his struggling friend. From this angle, Jotaro took in the extent of Josuke’s injuries. Josuke screamed and jerked around, sometimes stomping the ground and trying to cover a gaping wound on his arm with his hand. Still, Jotaro could see the crimson blood oozing and smearing his hand and arm; some of it even seemed to be coagulating while other parts still looked moist and droplets pooled together to resemble blobs of cherry jelly. The webs of blood trickled down Josuke’s arm, smearing across his fingers and stained the frayed edges of the ripped sleeve of his shirt. If only Josuke could use Crazy Diamond on himself—those wounds could have been fixed flawlessly—but this was no time to get caught up in what-ifs. “Jotaro-san!” Okuyasu’s shrieking snapped Jotaro out of his thoughts and returned his focus to the problem at hand. “What do I do? We need you here!”

“Okuyasu, listen to me.” The tears streamed down from Okuyasu’s eyes, and he blinked through them while he watched Jotaro’s face and eagerly awaited his next words. “Take off your shirt, wrap it around Josuke’s wound and keep putting pressure on it. Where are you right now? I’ll be there as soon as I can.”

“We’re in the Greenwich Halls; I dragged Josuke there after we were attacked, but I don’t know where the enemy is!”

“Did you see where they had went before you ran for cover? Or what they even look like?”

“No!” He was beginning to feel hysterical again, the fear and anger of suddenly being assaulted and seeing his closest friend laying on the floor helpless burning through him and rising up through his mouth as heated words. “It all happened in a blur. We were walking then I heard Josuke scream. When I looked around, he was on the ground but the enemy was nowhere in sight.”

“Keep pressure on Josuke’s wound.” At that command, Okuyasu’s trembling hands unbuttoned his shirt, slipped it off and wrapped it around his arms, but during this, he had dropped his phone and turned back to Josuke. Seconds later after a hushed exchange of whispers between the two, Okuyasu picked his phone up and directed the camera lens towards Josuke, who clutched the shirt around his arm. The pain still seemed to be searing from the way his face contorted in distress, but at least his screaming had stopped to be replaced with grunts and muffled groans. He kept biting his bottom lip to force his mouth shut, buckle down, and charge through the pain. At this sight, Jotaro immediately stood up from his desk, grabbed his phone from its three-pronged stand and keys and rushed out of his office with the air that he’s late for one of his classes or tutoring sessions. At least, that’s what he would tell any of his colleagues that witnessed him leave. With a few fluid motions, he locked the door to his office and stormed down the hall with laser focus, smoothly and decisively moving towards his car and entering the road with his phone and Okuyasu on the screen in his hand. “I’m on my way now. Get Josuke to a more secure place and lay low. If you find anything, _anything_ about the stand or its user—what they look like, sound like, how they attack—stay low and tell me through the phone.” The buzzing of whispers on the other end of the phone piqued Jotaro’s attention as he couldn’t quite make out the words said, but his intuition alerted him that it was important nonetheless. “Okuyasu, are you listening?”

“—Yes, yes!” Admittedly, Okuyasu’s voice rang from the phone hesitantly and even shakily as if he was suddenly caught off-guard and forced to give an answer. “I’ll take Josuke to another room and keep an eye out for the enemy stand.”

“Text me if you feel that the enemy is near. You can’t give away your location.”

“We’ll give it our all, Jotaro-san.” With a huff, Okuyasu gained his second wind; his tears dried up with the fire burning within his heart and soul, fist clenched with determination. “We’re gonna get this son of a bitch.” Jotaro grunted in response then replied,

“I should be there in fifteen minutes.” Okuyasu led Josuke deeper into the hall and took cover in a larger room beyond double doors where they hid behind one of the clothed tables dotted throughout the darkness of the room.

*~*~*

A few days earlier, Jotaro drove into the parking lot of a strip mall a few miles from his home during a pleasant Floridian winter afternoon in late January. He guided his car into a parking space then left it, heading directly to the pet store he frequents as he had seen that they have a decent selection of home aquarium tools he could use for his own home aquarium. His supplies had slowly disappeared with constant routine use, and if he waited just a week more, he knew his fish would suffer for it. Despite the piles of papers to grade and emails to read waiting to shackle him to his home office desk once more, he eked out some time to diverge himself from his home office desk and see something else than text, the buzzy brightness of his computer screens, and red pen ink which always found its way onto his fingers. He entered the store then exited a short while later with both hands carrying plastic bags filled with supplies: bags of food flakes, special pellet treats that nurture fish growth, new siphons, liquid algae treatment, new brushes, and frozen shrimp ice cubes. However, he remained too focused on the image of his car in the parking lot that he didn’t notice the hair of two certain punks he had known now for two decades peeking out over nearby car hoods.

Nearby, Josuke and Okuyasu lurked, crouched low to the ground behind cars a few feet from Jotaro. As their target opened the back doors and placed his bags of goods onto the car floor, they snuck around the car hood and approached him as quietly as they could from behind. While creeping closer to him, small bags of confetti and cheap party horns in their sweaty palms, they stood upright and when he inevitably turned around, they swiftly made their move. Okuyasu opened up the confetti bags and shoved the contents in the air right in front of Jotaro’s face while Josuke blew into those obnoxious horns and correctly anticipated Jotaro’s slightly caught off-guard expression. Of course, Jotaro knew the strings and glitter of confetti would fly everywhere—it was already all over his clothes and probably even invaded the car seats and floor since he had the door still open. But what quickly became more annoying than the thought of doing extra chores from this bullshit was the assault on his eyes and ears from seeing the gaudy, flashy bits of plastic and the intrusive sound of an obnoxious horn blown right into his face and ears with a resounding, “HAPPY BIRTHDAY!” from each of them simultaneously. He had half a mind to silently close the back door of his car, enter the driver’s seat and drive away without a second thought. But he stayed at first to brush off the stray confetti pieces on his coat and shirt when he saw the pure joy on the boys’ faces. They meant well, but they could have been much more subtle and less obnoxious. And this, he peevishly thought, is exactly why he didn’t want a party in the first place. All the screaming, sudden loud noises, and eyes glued to him made the perfect recipe for a headache that would haunt him for the rest of the day, and he remained determined to avoid that mental mess as much as he could.

“How does it feel to be fifty, _old man_?” Josuke jeered with a bright, wide smile. It even seemed fueled by the scowl on Jotaro’s face as he brushed off the bits of confetti and slammed the car door shut.

“What’s the matter with you?” Jotaro spat, briefly took off his hat to shake off the rest of the horrible glittering glitz then fixed it back onto his head. This motion, however, gave Josuke and Okuyasu a good view of the stripes of gray hair spreading from his ears. “Don’t you have better things to do than to waste time acting like children?”

“What’s wrong? Someone a little salty about their knees getting stiffer?”

“And hair greyer?” Okuyasu chimed back with Josuke and the two shared a little laugh and fist bump, but Jotaro huffed, emptied of patience, and moved to get into the driver’s seat of his car without further delay.

“Wait, wait, Jotaro, wait!” Right as Jotaro closed the car door, Josuke tapped on the window enough times until Jotaro lowered it with a glare gleaming underneath the brim of his hat. “We’re sorry; we didn’t mean any disrespect. We genuinely wanted to celebrate your birthday.” Jotaro had put his keys into the ignition, but even he knew better than to start a car and begin to move out of the parking lot with them standing right next to it, no matter how frustrated or annoyed he felt. Perhaps it was his fatherly instinct to protect them and to curb his irritation, so he would sit and wait to hear them out. After a few moments of looking both Josuke and Okuyasu over, Jotaro spoke,

“I didn’t know that you’d be in Florida.”

“Well,” Josuke glanced at Okuyasu briefly, eyebrows furrowed as if the answer was obvious but his older nephew simply hadn’t realized it. “We flew in to celebrate your birthday. A 50th birthday is pretty special, so we took a little vacation to celebrate it with you. I couldn’t miss it for my _nephew_.” Josuke knew that one word spoken from his lips towards Jotaro never failed to press on one of his nerves, and he reveled in the way the corner of Jotaro’s left eye twitched once when he felt _special annoyance_. They both knew it was a harmless joke, deep down, that had started sometime in the summer of 1999 when they first met, but Josuke planned to use it to poke fun at Jotaro every now in again. The thrill and satisfaction of seeing his tell-tale reaction proved again and again to be too good to pass over.

“I didn’t ask for a birthday party. Usagi or Jolyne should have told you that.”

“You don’t want a party?” Josuke asked, deflated with Okuyasu.

“Why not?” Okuyasu asked.

“It’s too annoying.” Jotaro responded, matter-of-factly. Unsatisfied with that answer, Okuyasu bristled briefly.

“But Miss Usagi told us,” Immediately, Josuke nudged his elbow into Okuyasu’s side, cutting his sentence off, but it wasn’t very subtle. He felt certain that Jotaro had seen it but tested his luck anyway.

“That’s a shame, Jotaro.” Josuke smoothly recovered and lightly pat Okuyasu’s arm. “I thought you would want to celebrate your big day like a normal person. But that’s just not your style, is it?” Pensive at first, Jotaro noticed something beyond Josuke’s tight smile and light of his eyes.

“You’re not telling me something.” Taken aback, Okuyasu felt the sudden itch to speak and leave the area before Jotaro could sink his hook in any deeper and pull out more information. His self-awareness of his lack of perceived intelligence suddenly came to the forefront of his mind, and it was only a matter of time, and luck, that Jotaro would probe the right spots and unearth precious information. Against this, however, he spoke quietly with little further provocation,

“Oi, Josuke, back off. We can’t tell him what Miss Usagi had planned with us.” Immediately, Josuke looked at him in an incredulous state which narrowed into a glare. Eventually, his lips turned into a cynical, wicked smile when he muttered a warning underneath his breath quiet enough so Jotaro couldn’t hear it.

“Okay, Jotaro,” Josuke spun around on his heel and pressed his lips into another tight smile. “We’re gonna get out of here. Later.” Before he had the chance to press Okuyasu further, Jotaro watched with some relief as they walked among the walls of cars towards their own rental one which had been purposefully parked on the other side of the parking lot so he wouldn’t spot them coming and ruin the surprise. With a somber sigh through his nose when he remembered the glitzy mess in the backseat waiting for him, he started his car and drove out of the parking lot to return home.

*~*~*

Later that day, Jotaro, despite promising himself that he would lighten his workload and enjoy the fresh air for his family’s sake, found himself once again chained to the desk chair of his home office with his good eye glued to the bright monitors before him. Waves of emails greeted his weary eye; most of them were spam sent from the university he works for and advertising in gaudy text for a myriad of employee activities for the approaching Valentine’s Day. Bake sales, rose sales, card making…he wasn’t interested and immediately deleted them.

“Oh, Jotaro~” Jotaro looked up from the dual monitors facing him at the sound of Usagi’s sweet chime to watch her glide upon the hardwood floors into his home office. During unusually high temperatures in the middle of January, he kept the glass panel doors open to facilitate much needed air flow to revitalize the stagnant hot air stretching through the house underneath the Floridian sun. Despite the unpredictable warmer weather, they decided it was too early to rely on central air to cool the house, so they had opted for ceiling fans in every large room to push the hot air away. “Chibiusa told me that she wants to spend more time with you. Could you show her how to take care of your fish tanks? She loves looking at them—if you let her, she’d spend all day just staring and watching the fish do their little thing.” She looked over the impressive files of books, papers, and folders stacked on his desk, and the light of the monitors highlighted the faint dark circles around his eyes. “I understand if you’re too busy…Maybe another time?”

“No. I could use a break.” He turned away and filed some papers into a cabinet while pretending not to notice the pleased smile on Usagi’s soft pink lips or how her gorgeous deep blue eyes gazed upon him, almost lost in a trance. If he had seen how her eyes watched him and how she restrained herself from holding him so he may address his work in earnest, he knew his heart would pick up and all concentration towards work would dissolve and be forgotten. Usagi brightened up when she exited her little trance and swiftly glided over to Jotaro, the patting of her socks hitting the hardwood floor announced her approach more and more clearly with every step. As anticipated, she slipped around to his back and let her arms smoothly sink down over his shoulders and bring him in for a soft hug.

“I think this would be a good opportunity for you two to spend some quality time together.” She spoke softly, every word ringing clearly in his ears. “She missed you a lot lately. Between watching Kousagi and handling work, she’s hardly even seen you when she’s home, so thank you for taking the time to do something with her. I think she’ll appreciate it too.” She kissed his cheek and felt one of his rare smiles forming then sauntered out of the door, quietly humming as she does so. She left him behind to resume taking care of his work, grading papers and gathering resources for his next research project and the like, but as expected, he couldn’t help himself but to stare after her. Her golden and silver strands of hair flowed down her back like rivers and swayed slightly with every bouncing step; he even marveled at her familiar habit of stepping lightly and the way her arms elegantly moved at her sides as she walked away until she slipped out of his field of view towards the living room where Kousagi probably waited for her. And of course he noticed her deliberate hair flip and her catwalk down the hallway. She could practically feel his eye on her, after all, and couldn’t pass on this opportunity to tease him. He knew that if he wasn’t careful, he would stare at her for many more moments, observing every detail as if he was back in college and his post-doctorate fellowship and watched the behavior of his research fish. It became a habit, he noted, that he developed subconsciously over years, and one that pained him during the decade when they lived separately while they were divorced.

Just a few minutes later as Usagi gently and carefully combed Kousagi’s hair, tied it in pigtails with neat little lacy, pink ribbons and listened to her babble on about her favorite stuffed doll, her cell phone buzzed and jingled upon the glass coffee table. “And that’s why I love my doll,” Kousagi continued muttering as Usagi leaned to her side to check her phone screen. She saw Josuke’s profile picture on the bright screen and felt a smile creep onto her lips as it usually does because she had chosen a picture from the last Christmas party to use as his profile. It was simply irresistible—at some point during the party, he dressed up as Santa Claus with everything but the beard and hat and still managed to convince Kousagi that he was the real thing. Thus, Kousagi crept forward, out of the protection her father’s leg could afford her and insisted that he’d let her sit on his lap and hear all about what she wants for Christmas. Of course, he couldn’t say no to her face, so not long after, Usagi took a picture of him holding Kousagi in his lap and cheering when she saw the excitement in her little girl’s eyes.

*~*~*

Later in his home office, Jotaro opened the double doors and held them open for Chibiusa who entered carrying various supplies for cleaning aquarium tanks. She held two heavy buckets, one in each hand, filled with tank brushes, heaters, bottles of algae cleaners and ion balancers for water treatment, and siphon pumps. “Chibiusa,” At her name spoken from her father’s mouth, Chibiusa snapped to attention and looked up at Jotaro with bright eyes. Carrying two hefty buckets of purified water, one dangling from each fist, Jotaro walked into his aquarium closet and set each bucket down near the drain in the middle of the small room. Next to Chibiusa was a four-step stepping ladder that gave adequate height for reaching the very top of the industrial steel shelf tower Jotaro had used to place four fifty gallon fish tanks, one on the top and middle shelves and two on the bottom shelf. They stood in the smallest closet of the room which housed four of the tanks; the adjacent room was three feet wider and held two industry steel shelf towers—the smaller tower held a 25 gallon tank on each of its four levels, and the other had three levels—two 50 gallon tanks on the bottom, and one 75 gallon tank on the middle and top shelves. Consequently, the small room came alive with the buzzing and trickling of the filters and musky scent of salt and fish scales. Next, Jotaro returned to the front of the closet and swiftly grabbed a water siphon before returning to his daughter. “Watch me as I clean the gravel of a tank. You’ll need a water siphon and an empty bucket.”

Standing next to him, Chibiusa quickly felt claustrophobic in the corner of one of the industrial towers and the doorway. When it was clear Jotaro would move to the smallest closet to step on the ladder, she sidled out of the way and watched as he needed only the first two steps to reach the highest tank. With a siphon in hand, he dipped the empty cylinder into the water, emptied the remaining air trapped within, and buried the tip into the colorful gravel. Meanwhile, the Jack Dempsey fish within this tank, fearing his sudden menacing presence, darted to the opposite end of the tank where they huddled close together in one corner of the tank. Chibiusa became distracted by how the fish bunkered down in their little corner of the tank that she didn’t notice her father shedding his coat and tossing it to her until the very last second when she managed to catch it and slung it over her shoulder. “Are you paying attention?” He funneled her attention back to himself, and with his thumb blocking the opening of the siphon tube attached to the cylinder submerged in the water, he positioned the tube just above the empty bucket she had placed for him at the bottom of the ladder. “Make sure that the siphon is completely submerged. The water will come out of the tube, and you need to empty it into a bucket. Be careful: when the bucket gets filled, the water splashes everywhere. I don’t want you to slip and get hurt.” He released his thumb and let a steady stream of water drop into the bucket with loud splashing and crashing. Chibiusa even felt some of the water droplets hop out of the bucket and spray her legs and frowned at the thought of the dirty salty water seeping into the threads of her clothes. She watched her father bury the cylinder of the siphon into the gravel, digging around and gazing intently at the rising smoke of dirty water being sucked into the tube and flung into the bucket. After a few seconds of digging, the tendrils of dirty water all flowed into the tube, and Jotaro moved to the next area, digging into the gravel and observing the dirt and grime disappear. Occasionally, the force of the exiting water pulled a piece of gravel with it, through the tube, and into the bucket with a distinguished _clack_. After a few minutes, Jotaro pulled the syphon out completely, allowed the tube to empty itself of the rest of the water and carefully made is way down the step ladder. “You got it?” She nodded and took his place on the step ladder, sidling past him and being mindful of the cramped space. She received the wet syphon and carefully climbed the steps after he deliberately took her smaller hand and placed it on the railing. “Keep your hand on the railing, Chibiusa.”

She responded affirmatively and noted how heavy his hand seemed on hers, as if it was carrying the weight behind his words and the worry within them. Perhaps, she wondered despite the warning, it evoked some earlier memories of how he would hold her hand while walking down the boardwalk with the rest of their family. And as she walked up to the top of the ladder, some of the water still remaining on the syphon splashed onto the steps. When she arrived at the very top, however, she felt a bit of vertigo hazing over her mind and looked down to her father for reassurance. She was maybe six feet above the floor, but from this new perspective and the knowledge of the risk of water slicking the steps, she couldn’t help but to feel a little challenged mentally. Even worse, she realized too late, was that the railing of the ladder was too low to protect her from falling if she leaned too much over the sides. Jotaro kept his good and sharp eye on her and remained at the side of the ladder, heavily focused and prepared enough to catch her. He held onto the railing as well and subconsciously cycled between gripping and squeezing on the metal and relaxing occasionally. With careful and slow movements, Chibiusa lowered the syphon cylinder into the water, emptied the remaining air and began to dig into the gravel. However, she forgot to plug up the opening of the tube with her thumb and dirty brick-red water shot out and splashed at her feet, the steps and even soiled and stained several areas of Jotaro’s shirt. Quickly, she forced her thumb onto the opening of the tube, but upon seeing how the water had darkened into red and brown, she removed her thumb and instead angled the water to land into the bucket.

“Sorry, Daddy.” She muttered with mild embarrassment and focused on copying his demonstration. She dug into the gravel and pushed the cylinder around, waited until all of the murky water left the tube, then visited another patch of gravel, systematically traveling from the left side of the tank to the right. The fish, of course, hastily blitzed around the tank, relocating themselves and flipping up some of the gravel whenever she moved closer to them but generally left her submerged hand and arm alone. When she was finished with that tank, she handed the siphon to Jotaro’s outstretched hand and made her way down the ladder with one hand practically glued to the railing.

“Next,” He spoke as he turned away and strode into the slightly larger work area leading into the aquarium closet. Just a second or two later, he returned with a half-filled jug of distilled water in his arms and offered it to Chibiusa. “We’ll need to replenish the tank’s water levels. You can use tap water treated with salt, but for now, I want you to use distilled water.” She dropped the siphon into a nearby empty bucket and received the water jug with both hands. Since it was only half-filled, she could handle its weight and confidently climbed the stairs to the very top once more. And once again, Jotaro returned to his place next to the stepping ladder at its base and observed her movements. Yet, when his hand returned to the railing, he again overlooked that he cycled between squeezing the metal and relaxing his fist, especially when he noticed her jerky and uncertain movements when she lifted the jug up and steadied it while pouring out the water. While she silently watched the water levels fill and how the fish still huddled in that one corner, she certainly felt her father’s eye on her and the density of the tense air around them. It made her blush in mild embarrassment and self-consciousness, and her thoughts steered away from the details of her environment and instead revisited her desire to please him. Surely he would praise her for maintaining his fish just how he instructed and spend more time working with her, mentoring her on the behavior of these fish, whose brightly colored turquoise scales had attracted her eyes. _‘Good job, Chibiusa.’_ He would say to her with maybe a small smile and a gentle pat of her head, just like how he used to when she was much younger. She loved his rare attention all of those years ago and wanted nothing more than that even now, but she knew something seemed a little bit off about him. Perhaps it was his age, perhaps it was his most recent injury—the scar across his eye he received almost a decade ago—perhaps it was the conflicting narratives of his attitude towards his family as told to her by her mother and older sister that smudged her recollection of him. Nonetheless, he was here now, and it looked like he intended to stay this time, and she planned to make the most of her time left with him.

When the last of the distilled water splashed into the tank, she handed the jug over to him and made her way down the steps, but with her head in the clouds and the jug distracting him for just a moment, she least expected to suddenly slip off of the top step, still slick with murky reddish water, and fall face first to the floor. Only she would have, but in the very next instance, she found herself already standing on the floor, away from the ladder and in safety with her father standing in front of her. The jug also wasn’t in his arms anymore; he had tossed it against the wall but seemed focused on her in that moment. It just took a second, an instant, even, for her to slip and fall down the stairs, but thank god, he thought, that he had faced her in that one second to be able to react faster and catch her in his world of stopped time. Within the few seconds of suspended reality, he lifted her up and away from the ladder and placed her safely on the ground then caught her as she stumbled forward when time resumed. Although he remained stalwart the entire time, his fear had occurred when he least expected it. “Whoa…Daddy? What happened?” She hadn’t felt a single thing during stopped time. Instead, in the last bit she recalled, she felt the plunging despair of fear when she had slipped and started to fall faster to the ground. Yet, she was baffled that it never came to her—her view of the ground was replaced with the sight of her father’s white shirt stained with the red of the murky water she had accidentally sprayed before, and instead of hitting the ground, her face planted into his torso briefly. Upon realizing how close she stood to him, her cheeks reddened a bit in brief shame.

“Are you alright?” He figured that he knew the answer already since she never hit the ground, but even so, she appeared slightly in shock, confused when she peered over to the ladder behind him. She stepped back and hummed in the affirmative but avoided looking up to his face and stood in the silence, breathing deeply and averting her eyes to the fish around her. Her fingers found the hem of her shirt and fiddled with it, twisting the fabric around her thumb and waiting through those stretched seconds, knowing full well that her father looked down on her. “Be careful next time. I’ll finish up here.” Satisfied that she was unharmed and that his own heart could relax, he turned away, fetched another filled jug of water, and finished replenishing the water levels of the tank on the highest level. “Leave these higher tanks to me; think you can handle the other tanks?” At his question, Chibiusa faded into focus, looked up to him when he turned back to look at her since she wasn’t answering, and agreed with a small voice. When she recognized that he was unconvinced, she smiled and repeated her answer loud enough to overcome the buzzing of the tanks that surrounded her. He returned his attention to the tank and finished refilling the water levels to the level he had marked on the glass wall with a black sharpie marker. When he took her eyes off of her, she let out a breath she didn’t realize she held back and let her eyes wander over to her left where they absentmindedly stared into the tank until fuzzy black particles drifting in the water faded into her focus. They appeared to be no longer than a centimeter in length and darted around in short spurts around each other but careful to not stray too far from the rock they hovered around. There must have been dozens of them, maybe even a hundred, drifting as a small black cloud around a certain rock with two adult fish hovering close by and standing guard against an imaginary threat.

“Hey, Dad, what are those things?” She lightly tapped on the glass tank, but when she recalled a previous lecture from her father on why that behavior is harmful to the fish, she quickly stopped and simply pointed at the twitching black cloud within the tank by the time he had turned around.

“Those are fry,” He stated matter-of-factly, removed the jug from the filled tank and cautiously stepped off of the stepping ladder. Without looking back at the tank and instead observing the huddled fish within the tank on the middle shelf of the metal tower, he spoke again. “Fish babies. I’ve been trying to get the parents to breed for a while now, but it looks like only now they’ve begun. Maybe it’s because you were taking care of them.” Chibiusa looked at the parents and instantly noted how much darker the scales appeared. These fish couldn’t be of the same species as the ones in the other tanks, right? Those fish were brighter with their belts of teal scales splitting through the tan scales, but the scales of these parents were so dark in color that it obscured the brightness of the normally shimmering teal spots.

“Why are they colored black? Are they even the same species? And their scales keep changing color,” She added her last musing in when she witnessed the scales of one parent lighten a little to reveal its normally tan identity only to darken once more after a few seconds.

“That’s what happens when they get ready to breed—their scales darken until they’re almost black.” Jotaro carefully removed the hood of one of the tanks to observe the level of salt crusting on the sides; he feared that the crust would be too caked on to remove easily and mentally noted that it would need to be chipped away sometime today. He might as well clear the crusting salt on all of the tanks while he’s at it. As he carefully lifted the hood of the tank away to clear more room to access the right half of the tank and the gravel at the bottom, Chibiusa continued observing the adult fish hovering around amidst their cloud of fry. If she peered a little more closely, she could just make out the miniature eyes that dimly shimmered under the light of the tanks and the thin, tiny fins flipping swiftly and propelling the fish over short distances. They looked just as dark as their parents, and occasionally, one of those parents darted out from the swarm of fry to chase another adult fish away. She followed the stray fish to another corner of the tank and noted how the parents have corralled their tank mates against a corner of the glass. One of these fish even appeared to have reddish bite marks and chipped fins along its fragile-looking body.

“That fish doesn’t look too well. It looks pretty beat up.” Jotaro looked over to the tank she observed and spotted the fish in question, lingering on how ratty its fins appeared to be. “And it looks scared; it’s even shaking.” After a brief pause, he broke his silence, grabbed the bucket mostly filled with dirty reddish water, and inched it closer to the drain in the floor at the center of the room.

“I’ll have to move it into another tank. These fish are normally aggressive and are known to chase tank mates away, even bully them, and this behavior gets worse when they’re breeding.” He tipped the bucket over carefully first but suddenly stopped when he noticed how close the water splashed to Chibiusa who seemed unaware that the bucket needed to be drained and instead stood fixed in front of the shelf tower. “Chibiusa, watch it. I’m about to dump the dirty water into the drain.” She looked down and upon seeing the murky water dangerously approach the white rubbery soles of her sneakers, she backed away and watched as he emptied the contents of the bucket around the drain. Although the floor dipped towards the center near the drain to funnel as much water towards it as possible, it was inevitable that the water would pool into a large puddle for a few moments. Lastly, the remaining bits of dirt and the few gravel pieces that were sucked into the siphon and had settled to the bottom of the bucket streamed out in clumps directly into the drain. When he finished, he handed the siphon over to Chibiusa and observed as she cleaned the gravel of the tanks closer to the floor and refilled each of them afterwards with jugs filled with distilled water. He ripped off the plastic covering the neck of each of the jugs and carefully lifted them from the bottom, and with her help directing the neck of the jug until it rested on the edge of the tank, they emptied the jug about halfway before he handed the rest of it off to her. It seemed to be easy enough for her to handle for her size. Compared to him, her hands were much smaller and daintier than his that he admittedly doubted that she could handle lifting the jugs off of the ground safely, so he felt compelled to lift each one for her just enough until most of the weight had drained into the tank. Yet, when it came to handling the other three tanks that were on the top of the towers, he wordlessly insisted that he work on those ones. He repositioned the step ladder in front of those tanks, climbed upon them for the first few steps, cleaned the gravel and refilled the tank all while Chibiusa stood by near the wall and watched her father work.

Next, Jotaro stepped over the small creek of gravel and salt leading into the drain, past Chibiusa and took out a tank brush and a small white bottle then returned to the tanks. From atop the stepping ladder, he observed the glass tank walls and dipped the brush into the water. “Chibiusa,” Her eyes snapped in attention to him. She had been a little bored watching him clean the gravel over and over again and cleared the way to the drain to avoid getting her shins dirtied with the disgusting reddish water splashing into the bucket then onto the floor. “Pay attention to the algae building up on the tank walls. It might look like a green, brown, or even reddish film on the glass tank walls. We need to clean that off when it appears. You just scrape it away from the tank walls with this brush then follow it up with AlgaeFix.” With the brush in hand, he swiftly scrubbed the greenish algae film off of the glass walls in a satisfying display then he pulled the brush out and set it on the metal gate shelf of the tower. “For a tank this size,” He spoke as he grabbed the bottle of AlgaeFix, unscrewed the cap and carefully poured out a small amount of the clear liquid into the cup of the cap. “You don’t need much. Just five milliliters, and for the smaller tanks, use three milliliters. Then just pour it into the tank.” She watched attentively as he dumped the small portion of AlgaeFix across the surface of the tank water. “I want this done around the same time once a week, so keep a calendar or the algae problem will get worse.”

“Then why does the algae keep growing even after you treat the water every week?”

“The AlgaeFix limits the growth of algae so that it’s manageable. There’s other factors that influence the growth of algae in aquarium tanks like the amount of light introduced into the tanks, nutrient level of the water, infrequent water changes, and overfeeding the fish.” He recapped the AlgaeFix bottle and descended the stepping ladder then handed her both the brush and the bottle. “That’s why I want you to keep an eye on the tank walls and scrape any algae off when you see it. I think you can handle the other tanks.” He moved the stepping ladder into the closet alcove to clear the way for her as she dipped the brush into the middle tank and scrubbed the rest of the algae off. Although her initial reaction was to retract from the water when she saw strips of the algae float off of the glass and into the water, she stayed until the glass was wiped clean from the algae film and streaks left behind from the initial brush strokes. They floated near the surface of the water like translucent black strips of skin, and she moved carefully to avoid the slimy piece of film from touching her. Within minutes of quiet scrubbing and observation of the glass walls, she cleared the walls of the tank and treated the water with three milliliters of AlgaeFix, or so she thought. She measured out the liquid as carefully as she could, but her slightly trembling hands upon feeling the full weight of the bottle and the fear of over-pouring and wasting the liquid when it spills to the floor inevitably caused her to pour a little more than necessary. Yet, her father was quiet about this, so she dumped what she had into the tank and closed the bottle.

For the next hour, Jotaro observed Chibiusa scrape clean the walls of each of the tanks and treat the water with AlgaeFix with very little input. She seemed to take his instructions to heart with how diligently she worked that he felt that she didn’t need further instruction. Instead, he gathered the dirtied bucket and cleaned it in the deep sink in the front alcove while she worked on the other side of the wall. Within a few minutes, she had returned from the aquarium closet with the brush in one hand and the AlgaeFix bottle in the other and handed each of these things to Jotaro. “I’m finished scraping off the algae. Is there soap in here? Some of it touched my arms.” Silently, Jotaro pointed towards the bottle of soap next to the deep sink and Chibiusa gravitated towards it during the very next second.

*~*~*

Usagi briskly walked into the basement family room with her purse hanging from her forearm. She became increasingly aware of how hefty it weighed upon her and kept reminding herself that she would eventually clean it out for about the fifteenth time that week. Before she fully realized it, she developed a habit of hoarding emergency makeup supplies, shopping receipts and other unnecessary junk within her purse then complain underneath her breath how heavy it became. Her closest friends had even claimed that she carried literal bricks once they felt its weight. As she walked, one of her hands dug within the confines of several of her purse pockets, searching for that one daily planner—a pastel pink one decorated with small doodles of rabbits, hearts, and a crescent moon with the word ‘mom’ written across it in calligraphy. It was her favorite one simply because it was a Christmas gift from Jolyne who had custom ordered it after spotting it in a Christmas bazaar, and she kept it with her everywhere, using it for work, doctor’s appointments, and personal events. Now, she needed it when she met with Giorno, Okuyasu, Josuke, Jolyne, and Chibiusa who all waited and chatted with each other among the corner couch set Usagi and Jotaro had purchased together last fall. Once she dug far enough into her purse and found it, she carefully ripped it out and looked up to her audience. “Okay, so what do we have planned?”

“Wait, Mom, did you close the door upstairs?” Jolyne quickly blurted out and put her hand up to Josuke to pause their conversation. Usagi made a pensive face for a second or two, and when she realized that she didn’t close the door in front of the steps leading down to the basement, her eyes went wide for a bit and she swiftly turned around and softly jogged back upstairs. Although all of them knew with certainty that Jotaro would be cooped up in his office for most of the day as it was his habit, they couldn’t afford the risk of having him eavesdrop on their conversation. It would surely ruin all of their plans and hard work they painstakingly built for the last two months. Seconds later, the door closed shut and Usagi returned downstairs with a huff and perched herself on the oversized ottoman at Jolyne’s feet.

“Alright, as a reminder, I made reservations at the hall for February 3rd at 2pm. That’s a Monday. Now,” Usagi giggled a little, fully knowing that the answer she sought was laughably out of reach. “How do we get him to go?”

“We can’t just call him,” Jolyne immediately answered, her eyes looking down to her feet with a frown on her lips. “He’s not the type of person to just show up if invited.”

“Unless…” Giorno thought hard, fist underneath his chin as he both planned out his answer and pieced together strings of English words to replace the Italian speech of his thoughts. Although he had studied English for several years by now, translating his thoughts into coherent English took a few moments, but the others never corrected him. His English sounded fluent enough to clearly articulate his points, which was a vast improvement from the start of the last decade. “We trick him to arrive.”

“And how do we do that?” Chibiusa asked.

“If he’s working, hardly anything can get him to come out of that office.” Josuke added as he leaned back against the corner of the couch. “Okuyasu and I were surprised to even see him out of the house a few days ago.”

“Maybe,” Giorno started again, “We could try faking an injury?”

“No.” Jolyne interjected crossly and rested her head on her hand with her elbow on the arm of the couch. “Injuries won’t do anything. When I was kid, I was hospitalized with a fever and almost died, but he still never showed up.” Usagi remained silent with reflection and closely looked Jolyne over. She didn’t hear much animosity in her voice, unlike nearly ten years ago when she had been jailed. Even still, the memory of it somewhat darkened the light in Jolyne’s eyes and rendered Usagi pensively silent in its wake.

“I mean, maybe not any ordinary injury, but,” Giorno paused again, seeking the English words once more. "Maybe a stand attack.”

“A stand attack? Faking an injury from an enemy stand?” Josuke asked and Giorno responded with a nod and a hum in affirmation. Josuke looked around at the others then up at the ceiling in reflection. _That could work_ , he thought and dug into his memories to the time his nephew had visited him in Morioh two decades ago. He and his mother had been stalked and attacked by Angelo, and when he called his nephew for help, he had indeed arrived. “Yeah, I think that could work. That _could_ work.” Josuke pondered over the little details of the plan, but something didn’t quite add up. How would they fake an injury? His Crazy Diamond could fix anything, so calling Jotaro and luring him to an area would be moot. “But how are we going to pull that off convincingly?”

“Yeah, Jotaro is pretty sharp.” Okuyasu agreed and swiftly added. “He knows that Josuke can heal anything.” Josuke remained silent for another moment or two as he reflected on that visit in Morioh before the summer of 1999 until something had occurred to him.

“Except myself. I can’t heal myself.”

“So, we have Josuke fake the injury?” Jolyne inquired and was answered with a nod from Giorno.

“Yes, _signorina_.” Ah, even now, some Italian still snuck past Giorno’s lips, but Jolyne hadn’t mind. Instead, she rather enjoyed it and pondered if she should take up another language. It’s been ages since she had practiced Japanese, and even then, she only knew a few words and phrases. Her father hadn’t been around much to help her nurture that skill, and Usagi hadn’t given it much thought either.

“I can do your makeup, Josuke,” Chibiusa chimed in. “I took this makeup for film class at my school—I can make it look pretty convincing. Just wear cheap clothes. We can fray them with heavy-duty scissors to make it look even better.”

“Wait, who said we’re going cut into my clothes?” Josuke leaned forward from his seat, absentmindedly playing with the sleeve of one of his favorite buttoned-up shirts which he paid more than a pretty penny for. In fact, many of his clothes tended to be pricey as he was known by some of his family members to be invested in the threads he wears. It was simply a habit he had since adolescence.

“We want to make it look convincing, right?” Jolyne said. “Do you really think an enemy stand user is going to care about the state of your clothing when they attack you?”

“If they had any value on their life then yes.” Josuke lightly glared at her and unconsciously grabbed his wrist. Usagi could see he was digging his heels in and wouldn’t budge any further at the idea.

“You can wear one of Jotaro’s old shirts.” Usagi offered. “It might be a little big on you, but honestly, who can tell the difference? And he won’t miss it. I was planning on getting rid of that shirt anyway before we go shopping for summer clothes.”

“That settles it.” Giorno concluded as Usagi scribbled some notes down in her planner. Josuke seemed to be less defensive about the idea but still a little apprehensive about the execution, especially if Okuyasu was delivering the scenario to Jotaro. He loved him dearly, but he knew he wasn’t the sharpest tool in the shed. In fact, all of them knew it, even Okuyasu. “I think this can work.”

“I can’t believe we have to go to this length to drag Dad’s ass out of his work.” Jolyne commented, drawing Usagi’s attention, but her voice was light instead of heavy with annoyance. “This family is anything but normal.”

“That’s just his personality, dear.” Usagi’s lips curled into a small and mildly amused smile. “Trust me. I’m used to pulling at his strings when we were dating.”

“Do you think he’ll be mad about it when he realizes it’s all fake?”

“Perhaps. But I don’t think he’ll stay mad for long. Not with his loving family surrounding him for his big day.”

*~*~*

During a cool early February evening in Florida, the night before his birthday, Jotaro walked into the master bathroom connected to the spacious master bedroom he shared with Usagi and turned on the running water of the soaking tub until it was three quarters of the way filled. Although the outside air was cool, it was an usually warmer night in February, so he opened the horizontally sliding windows about halfway and felt the incoming gentle breeze softly chill his skin. With the saucer lights overhead of the bath dimmed down to their lowest level, he lit several sandalwood-scented candles with a metal lighter and carefully positioned them to the two back corners of the bath, away from the bath’s entry point. Lastly, he pulled out a glittering pink bath bomb from its plastic cube encasing and peeled off the plastic wrapping. Usagi had always loved these things—she swore up and down that there was something in these bath bombs that helped her skin feel so soft and smell deliciously tantalizing to him. At least, she gathered that he loved the soft aroma from her body given by these bath bombs when they became intimate. It was no mystery to her—the number of times he pressed his lips to her skin, along the length of her arms and legs, lingering on her hands, neck, breasts, and feet, and how he rested his face on her chest when they enjoyed the afterglow together were obvious indicators that he loved her scent. Yet, she rarely used some of these bath bombs; she saved them only for the most special occasions, including for his milestone birthday. ‘ _Honey, I think you’re pushing yourself too far_ ,’ she spoke to him about an hour ago when she spotted him practically chained to the desk in his office, staring at the dual monitors in front of him and drowned in the curtain of bright light emanating from them. One look at the darkened half-circles under his eyes and the redness within the white part of his good eye alarmed her. His work obviously drained the life out of him, and she wouldn’t just stand by and watch him run himself into the ground again. He paused his work briefly to turn his face away from the screens and rub his eye with the index finger of his right hand. ‘ _Listen, Jotaro_ ,’ Usagi approached with a smooth gait, slightly swinging her hips and stepped lightly across the floor. ‘ _Why don’t we set ourselves up a little bath together to destress? C’mon, I know you’re tired—I’ve seen you working hard all day. And it’s your 50 th tomorrow! Let’s get you away from the computer and start celebrating a little early, how does that sound?_’ She leans in closer to put her lips near his ear for a sensational whisper. ‘ _We can use one of my lavender silk bath bombs I know you love so much. Maybe play a little music, light some candles._ ’ Admittedly, her whispers and the faint waft of a sweet aroma from her face sent slight shivers down his spine. So, with a small smile of defeat, he locked his computer and let her pull on his arm playfully until he was standing up, out of his chair, and led upstairs towards their bedroom.

Now, he had everything prepared; he tossed the bath bomb into the water where it immediately fizzled out and dyed the water with sparkling pink swirls, and retrieved a small radio he and Usagi often used in their backyard when they watched the stars and enjoyed the silence together within each other’s company. Anticipating Usagi’s arrival into the bathroom, he shed his signature coat, unbuckled his belt, and stripped himself of his shirt, pants and socks before removing his hat and setting it carefully on the dry countertop. Lastly, he slid his boxer briefs off, set the radio to a soft volume, and entered the welcoming water. Yet, he briefly wondered if the glitter from the bath bomb would stain the tub once they drained everything out.

By the time Usagi had strolled into the bathroom wearing her plush pink bathrobe, he leaned against the side of the tub so that his back nestled perfectly within the wide curvature of the far end of the tub, opposite of the faucet. The window just over his left shoulder occasionally brought in a breeze that chilled the exposed skin there, but it was short lived and replaced with the thick steam from the water. Usagi elegantly undid her hair buns and fluffed out her streams of hair while examining herself within the mirror. Her still mostly blonde hair revealed subtle signs of her aging—more than just a few strands of silver invaded the flowing rivers of gold, and she was well-aware of this fact, even dreaded it at times and considered running along to the nearest hair stylist to dye it all back to blonde…until she caught sight of the look in Jotaro’s eyes when he beheld her. She may have felt miffed and despaired a little at seeing the silver strands of gray mix more and more with her natural blonde, which seemed to be fleeing ever farther away from her, but it only strengthened the spark within his heart for her. He may not express it very well, if at all, even, but those emerging silver strands lent an ethereal beauty. If only he could help her realize that. Usagi seemed lost even with the way she combed through her long strands of hair, actively seeking out those silver strands and frowning more and more with each new one she found hiding within the gold. “Usagi,” Jotaro had called from the tub and managed to capture her attention away from the mirror. “You look fine. More beautiful than ever, even. Now get into the water before it gets cold.” She stole just one more glance in the mirror before undoing fluffing out her hair one last time and reveling in the satisfaction of combing through her long strands. Still, she was well aware of how her heart skipped when she felt his gaze upon her.

“How’s the water?” Usagi turned to look at him and observed with simple pleasure at the dim lighting that obscured bits of Jotaro’s form, and the small golden light of the candles illuminating his face.

“Scalding.” Usagi giggled at that comment, especially at how Jotaro delivered it with an unflappable face. In a swift moment, she let her bathrobe slide off of her slender arms and onto the floor, exposing her body for his eyes only. She was mostly petite in the arms and legs with some thickness in her thighs and pelvis—a consequence, she knew, from carrying babies and giving birth three times. Some stretch marks lined from her pelvis and curved to over her thighs, and her breasts, enlarged a little from breastfeeding, and buttocks jiggled slightly with every step she took towards the bath. She tentatively dipped a few toes into the water and upon feeling the warm water engulfing her, she descended fully into the bath. She found the open spot between his legs and slowly knelt down and submerged herself further into the water, easing herself back against him until she found her proper place sitting against his lap, her back flushed against his abdomen and chest. Soon after, she felt his solid arms drape around her in an embrace and his chin rested upon her shoulder. She smiled and let out a giggle, held onto his arms and turned her face a little towards his.

“Isn’t this nice?” She cooed. “Getting you away from your desk…You spend so much time in your office that I was even thinking of bringing an air mattress, pillows and blankets in there so you could sleep comfortably. And I can see those dark circles around your eyes. Are you even getting enough sleep?” The small smile he wore sank into his usual frown, thin lips pressing together briefly until he spoke.

“I get just the right amount.”

“Of course you do. Because you’re totally not nodding off now, and you totally weren’t nodding off when I saw you in your office today.” She could feel how heavy his head weighed upon her shoulder and how the steam from the bath surely caused his eyelids to droop even further. He was on his way to the land of dreams, regardless of if he even made it to their bed. “Get some rest tonight, okay? Tomorrow is a big day for you.”

“I told you that I don’t want a big party. Just some time with you and our girls.” He let his eyes close completely and let out a huge sigh he didn’t realize he had held, but before sleep came for him, Usagi moved and displaced his chin that had rested on her shoulder.

“You haven’t even told me what kind of cake you wanted, or even any gift ideas. It’s your milestone birthday—I wanted it to be special for you.”

“Spending some quality time with my family is enough for me; don’t worry.”

“I’m sure that the girls would appreciate that, even Jolyne. She’s been warming up to you lately; have you noticed that?” Jotaro grunted slightly underneath his breath and leaned back against the rim of the bathtub. He looked to his left as if expecting a nightstand next to him with an ashtray and cigarettes waiting for him just within reach, but he soon remembered that he had quit smoking decades ago right when he discovered that Usagi was pregnant with Jolyne. Still, the desire to have one cigarette crept into his mind even now to be waved off like trails of smoke wafting from cigarette embers. Aside from cigarettes, he also missed the image of having an alcoholic beverage nearby so he could truly relax, but they didn’t keep a nightstand next to the bathtub in the first place. A part of him pondered over suggesting a small stand be placed underneath the open window to hold any beverages he might want while soaking in the tub, and to sweeten the suggestion, he might mention that it could hold any incense Usagi wanted to burn during her self-care routines she indulged in every Sunday evening like clockwork. As quickly as the thought came up, however, it melted away as he wouldn’t be in the bath too long to even enjoy it.

“The only thing I notice is that she keeps asking for money. ‘ _Dad, I need two hundred dollars_ ,’ she says almost every time she comes home from school.” Usagi laughed at that.

“Well? Did you give it to her?”

“No. She has a job, doesn’t she?”

“That’s not everything, is it?” He remained silent after her question, but she had expected that anyway. “You’re not telling me something.”

“I might have…” She hummed to coax him forward, and he did with a small laugh and admission of guilt. “I slipped her a little bit of money here and there before she went out. It’s not much, maybe enough for a movie, but she never complains.” In a moment, she reached up and gently patted the top of his head with a water-soaked hand. Inevitably, a few drops fell from her hand and dripped onto his face then rolled down the point of his nose and chin.

“Good daddy. You’re such a good daddy.” She combed her slender fingers through his hair, watching as she finds another grey strand hiding underneath the sea of black strands. His eyes were closed when he felt the water drops running down his face, but she wished that he would open them so she could see that aquamarine color. Suddenly, an idea popped into her head amid her fantasy. “Ah, we also could have gone to an aquarium. I know you like it there, and it would be awesome if you could hold Kousagi and tell her all about the fish. She would love it.” He hummed in thought as he imaged the nearly three year old Kousagi toddling between the aquarium tanks then to him with her arms stretched upwards. He recognized it as her signal that she wanted to be held, and he couldn’t resist. He knew better—he would hold her and point to each fish in every tank, prattling on endlessly about them, as much as he could tell a young child then move on towards the next tank. Compared to her sisters, Kousagi tamely played with her toys, sat still whenever she was told, and only fussed when she was denied bedtime or naps. He felt assured that she would behave herself in a public space. Yet, the imagery of work surrounding him and the accompanying tense feelings soured that scenario somewhat.

“It’s too similar to work. I want to relax with my children.” Usagi stretched her legs along the length of the bathtub, pushing back against his chest and sighed as her muscles relaxed and rested a little heavier upon him and the tub.

“You should play hide-and-seek with Kousagi—she loves it when she finds you hiding like a tree.” Usagi laughed and brushed some of her hair out of her face moistened with sweat. The heat of the bath fogged her thoughts a little, limiting her will to do much aside from laying within the arms of her husband and dreaming of the look on his face when he discovers his surprise tomorrow. “Her face just lights right up! Remember when she grabbed onto your coat and tugged you along to lead you out from the tree you were hiding behind? I think I have a picture of that saved on my phone. I’ll never forget the joy on her face when she brought you back.”

For a few moments, Jotaro reflected on that moment when the whole family held a barbeque last summer in a state park. The weather remained fair throughout the day, with the temperature soaring into the 90’s, but Jotaro and Usagi had planned for this day. With help from Josuke, Okuyasu, Jolyne and Giorno, they unpacked heavy coolers filled with water bottles embedded in a sea of ice, blankets, umbrellas, tents, food, and toys for outdoor games, and claimed two picnic tables. Usagi and Chibiusa covered the tables with cheap tablecloth while Jotaro fired up the grill and began to cook rows of hamburgers, hotdogs, and chicken, taking turns with Josuke and Okuyasu, while Jolyne and Giorno set up the tents, unfolded and placed the chairs in the shade and spread the blankets out on the bright green lawn. Joseph and Suzi Q had also visited the family during this time, and so Usagi and her girls helped shuffle them over to the seats underneath the tent, comfortably within the shade, and handed them cold bottles of water. They stayed underneath the tent for most of the day, occasionally getting up to move around with some assistance, but Usagi kept a close eye on them, lingering near them and checking up frequently.

As Jolyne, Chibiusa, Okuyasu, Giorno, and Josuke kicked a soccer ball back and forth across the lawn, Kousagi toddled onto the grass, her frilly white summer dress blowing gently with the cool breeze. She stepped out of the shade of the tent and towards the soccer players, eager to join their little game, even if she couldn’t keep up with them very well. She reached a few meters of them, but when she heard her mother’s voice calling for her, she turned around completely. Within a few more seconds, the soccer ball had flown clear through the air and smacked into her back, throwing her into the grass on her hands and knees. A few meters away, Jolyne audibly gasped and kept an eye on the distant form of her mother and father as she jogged towards Kousagi. She was far away enough to not see their faces, but when she saw Usagi approaching them, she prepared for another lecture. Kousagi had cried when she realized she was knocked face first in the dirt, but strangely, she lightened up when Jolyne knelt down to her side and helped her stand to her feet. “ _You’re okay, right? You’re okay, Kousagi_.” Jolyne softly spoke and gently handled Kousagi by her small waist to lift her up off of the dirt. She looked regretfully upon the grass and dirt stains smeared upon the front of the dress that she and Usagi had picked out for her when they shopped in preparation for the summer months. She had remarked to their mother that it was such a gorgeous dress and that Kousagi would look divinely adorable wearing it along with a little hat with a bow flowing from it. Now, it was smeared with stains of green and brown that she wasn’t sure she could erase with her magic tide pen. Kousagi had stopped crying as if on cue and stayed still when Jolyne patted away the blades of grass and specks of dirt. When Josuke, Giorno, Okuyasu, and Chibiusa had gathered around and expected to see a crying child, Jolyne had answered them with, “ _She’s fine. She just took a fall, but she’ll be alright_.” As Usagi approached within a few feet of them, Kousagi toddled towards her and into her arms.

“ _Did you have a bad spill, sweetie_?” Usagi said to the little child with a gentle face but found, to her surprise, that she wasn’t still crying. Next, Usagi looked up at Jolyne who had stood up and was ready to turn around and resume playing. “ _Be more aware when she’s around_.”

“ _I know, Mom. Sorry_.”

“ _She’s much smaller than you and can easily get hurt_.”

“ _I’m sorry, Kousagi_.” Jolyne apologize while stroking the girl’s hair, but Kousagi didn’t mind. She had more important things to do which involved her dad from how she left the scene and ran over to him as fast as she could on her little legs. Jotaro had been watching from the grill the entire time. As soon as he saw Kousagi face-plant on the ground with the soccer ball bouncing off from her back, he intended to briskly walk across the field to check up on her, but Usagi had beat him to it. However, he could clearly see how Kousagi had stopped crying once Jolyne reached her and how she appeared relatively normal, as if the soccer ball had never hit her. Now, she ran towards him, bouncing with such youthful energy and a bright smile that it didn’t matter if she had been knocked down for a few seconds.

Kousagi ran over to her father standing by the smoking grill and suddenly stopped when she reached within half a foot of him. From here, Jotaro could clearly see that the spill she had meant nothing to her as she still vibrated with energy in the way she held her arms up towards him and periodically stood on her tip toes. He understood the cue and reached down, grabbed onto her waist and hoisted her up into her arms while moving away from the tails of grey smoke and blankets of heat radiating from the lit grill. And when he touched her back briefly to steady her and help himself to balance her weight, she didn’t flinch or make a sound that she had been hurt. Usagi approached them from the bright field and into the cover of the tree’s shade near the grill while Jolyne resumed playing soccer with the others behind her.

“ _You should play with her_.” Usagi lightly cheered. “ _She loves playing hide-n-seek. I’ll watch the grill while you two play_.” Jotaro gave her a silent look for a few seconds, but she pretended not to notice as she gently brushed past him and opened the hood of the grill and inspected the food. “ _Don’t look at me like that_ ,” she playfully chided without looking at him. Despite the heat of the grill surrounding her, she could feel his eye on her. “ _Spend time with your daughter_.” Upon seeing just the curve of her smile, his lips produced a small grin, so he set Kousagi down and spoke directly to her, capturing her attention.

“ _Kousagi_ ,” He knelt onto the ground after he spoke her name. “ _What do you want to play_?” She paused for a bit but then hopped once when an idea popped into her head.

“ _Hide-and-seek_!”

“ _Hide-and-seek? You want to hide and wait until I find you_?”

“… _No_.” She shook her head to confirm her decision in an exaggerated motion.

“ _No? You want to look for me instead?_ ” He had developed a habit of speaking a little more slowly to her and in a neutral tone to keep her calm. He still could work on remembering to lighten his expression whenever he’s speaking to her, however.

“ _Yeah_!” She giggled, and Usagi closed the grill hood and knelt down next to her.

“ _You can’t look at Daddy when he’s hiding_.” She turns Kousagi around so that her back faced Jotaro and kept speaking to keep garnering her attention. It didn’t take much to do so—Kousagi had tended to be an obedient child and typically focused on one person at a time. Much more than that would see the child crying with overwhelming social stimulation that wouldn’t stop until Usagi or Jotaro brought her into a much quieter place.

“ _Why_?”

“ _Because that’s cheating_.” Now that she has Kousagi’s attention, with one arm, she shooed Jotaro away, pointing to a large tree a few meters away in the distance. “ _And cheating is unfair. Daddy’s hiding now. You can look for him soon_.” While Kousagi stared at Jolyne and the others in the distance and squirmed within Usagi’s hold, her mother kept at an eye on Jotaro until he slipped behind the wide trunk of the tree she had pointed out. Admittedly, it was comical to watch his head peering out from behind the tree occasionally and ducking back behind it whenever Kousagi turned in that direction. “ _Okay, are you ready to find Daddy_?”

“ _Where’s Daddy_?” Kousagi looked around, focusing on the area her mother had tried to hide from her before.

“ _I don’t know! You have to look for him. Where could he hide?_ ” She watched and even encouraged Kousagi to walk around with slight nods in the direction of that tree.

“ _I find him_.” Kousagi wandered across the grass, inching closer and closer to that one tree until she caught a glimpse of Jotaro’s face and hat when he peered out from the tree again to watch her come a little bit closer. And Kousagi’s expression seemed to lighten up when she spotted him.

“ _Did you find him, Kousagi?_ ” Before Usagi could get to her, she ran forward on small legs to the tree Jotaro stood behind, grabbed onto the golden cuff of his coat sleeve and tugged him out of hiding. “ _You found him! You found Daddy!_ ” Triumphantly, Kousagi led Jotaro out from the trunk of the tree and the blanket of shade with a wide smile and joyful laugh when she brought him to Usagi.

“ _I found him!_ ” She declared with a proud grin and squealed in delight when he suddenly stooped down to lift her up and twirl her around in his arms. As he had once done to Jolyne and Chibiusa when they were small toddlers, he lifted Kousagi up by her legs, letting her dangle above the ground, then turn her right-side up, holding onto her arms and waist and hoisting her across his shoulder. He felt assured that he would never drop her: even if he felt her slipping, Star Platinum proved to be an excellent safety net to catch her and return her to his secure hold. Even so, it still put Usagi on edge as she watched her child fly through the air, giggling and laughing nonchalantly.

Before neither Usagi nor Jotaro had realized, nearly half an hour had passed since they had entered the bath together. The water was lukewarm at best now and their skin surely pruned. They hadn’t even washed themselves yet. So, Usagi grabbed the nearby bar of unscented soap and began cleaning herself. She felt her eyelids grow even heavier from the steamy air and relaxingly warm water, but the last place she wanted to fall asleep in was the bathtub. Jotaro, however, waited until Usagi had finished and left the bath before he started cleaning himself. After Usagi dried her hair, rolled it up into a towel and slipped on her bathrobe, she turned back towards Jotaro with a small mischievous but knowing smile and glint in her eyes. “I think you’ll really enjoy tomorrow.” He shot her an inquisitive look with the way his eyebrows slightly furrowed in a silent plea to continue, but she wouldn’t say much more. “You’ll have to wait to find out.”

*~*~*

Jotaro parked into an empty space near the Greenwich Hall building where supposedly Okuyasu and Josuke took refuge. Up until now, Okuyasu still had no idea the shape or likeness of the enemy stand or its user, so Jotaro understood that he was going in blind. It was dangerous, to be sure, but he had no other choice. As an old habit, he declined to alert the other stand users of his family and went forward alone. It would take too much time, he thought, and from the looks of Josuke’s wounds, he knew he was pressed for time. Perhaps the enemy stand user hadn’t seen where Okuyasu and Josuke hid and thus were aimlessly looking around for their targets? If so, Jotaro knew that they would reveal themselves eventually and kept a sharp surveillance on his surroundings. Nothing seemed out of the usual, so he exited his car and entered the lobby of the hall. Sometime during his drive, Okuyasu had ended the call and sent him a text of where he and Josuke had hid—in the large ballroom with the lights off. For all he knew, the stand user could have been looking for him within the building itself, so he kept himself hidden behind a table with Josuke.

Jotaro walked into the darkness of the large and eerily quiet hall before him. The building was mostly quiet, but if he listened closely, he could clearly make out the faint whisperings of people within the curtain of darkness. Unfortunately, he couldn’t recognize the voices, but he was sure that he found the correct hall Josuke and Okuyasu had hid in, so he assumed it was them. “Josuke, Okuyasu, are you in here?” Okuyasu peaked out from the table and motioned for Josuke, who had stopped writhing in pain and instead crouched onto the floor, to stay low before stepping out into the light of the hallway. Jotaro wasn’t entirely in the hall yet, however, and Okuyasu knew he was just feet away from the ideal spot.

“I’m here, Jotaro-san. We still haven’t seen the enemy stand user, and Josuke’s hiding behind this table.” He motioned Jotaro to step forward, and to his surprise, it worked. And when Jotaro reached that one spot Okuyasu kept a sharp but obvious eye on, the lights of the room suddenly flicked on, ripping through the curtain of darkness. Suddenly, Jotaro found himself met with several heads of people he recognized as his immediate and extended family popping out from the multitude of tables within the room like daisies, all eyes fixed on him, including Josuke’s who seemed to be perfectly fine despite the messy wound still looking fresh on his arm.

“SURPRISE!!!” Everyone shouted at once and in unison, throwing Jotaro completely off guard and sent him stepping back once then twice. The sudden flash of light and startling wave of loud, obnoxious noise forced him to instinctively summon Star Platinum before him, eagerly edging to reflexively punch the very first thing that moved within his range, which incidentally happened to be Okuyasu. The crowd, startled yet amused and mildly concerned, made a chorus of gasps and laughter upon seeing Jotaro so caught off-guard. Considering how aloof, calm and collected he kept himself, it was refreshing to see him behave more human-like, even if the overwhelming surprise brought him so much embarrassment that would humble him later.

Despite his show of defense, Star Platinum slowly faded from vision as Jotaro took in the sight before him: everyone he knew from his immediate and extended family—his daughters, wife, grandparents on his mother’s side, his mother, younger uncle from Japan and granduncle from Italy, all of their friends, and his in-laws—all of them with smiles on their faces and joy in their eyes, looked upon him, and suddenly, he felt like a dinosaur someone wanted to put on display. Usagi, with a welcoming smile and excitement too great to handle in her small frame, bounced forward, giggling at his stunned face even if he tried to recover quickly and hide it, and reached for his hand. He let her take it within her own, and at her touch, Star Platinum had faded more out of view then his good eye had met hers. “Happy birthday, Jotaro.”

He looked down to see Kousagi walking up to him with arms raised once more, so he stooped down to pick her up. “Happy Birthday, Daddy.” She spoke to him, eliciting his smile, and he carried her further into the room to greet the rest of his family in turn. Despite his desire to skip his milestone birthday party, it wasn’t as bad as he had feared, and he enjoyed the time he spent in the company of his loved ones.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Alright, I can't believe that this chapter alone makes up almost half of this entire fic by the time of posting this LOL. I hadn't specifically planned that out btw. It just sorta...happened. I had so many little ideas to squeeze in here and there that I couldn't resist extending the chapter by a little more and a little more. I hope you enjoyed reading it at least half as much as I enjoyed thinking it up!
> 
> As always, please leave comments with constructive criticisms or what you generally liked about the chapter. I have chapter 4 planned, but it'll be some while before it's actually posted. Have a hint anyway: Jotaro and Usagi first found each other at a rather low point in their lives...

**Author's Note:**

> I do hope you enjoyed this chapter. Please leave feedback and comments with constructive criticism and what you may have generally liked about this chapter and ship. Admittedly, I have not finished Stone Ocean nor Sailor Moon while writing this, so my characterization may be off a bit.


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